3. Los Angeles Lakers
The lineup: LeBron James – Anthony Davis – Marc Gasol – Dennis Schroder – Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
Net Rating – 19.5 points per 100 possessions (121.5 Offensive, 102.0 Defensive)
Most lineups will work when LeBron James is in the game, but this lineup has a certain feel of unstoppability. Plugging the newly-acquired Marc Gasol with AD and LeBron gives them a tall playmaking super lineup that is shaking fear in the hearts of other teams.
Add in the scrappy Dennis Schroder and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and you get a lineup with a high floor and an incredibly high ceiling. In 187 minutes together, this group is +18 on the floor.
Why is it effective?
I could just write LeBron James, but I won’t.
The offense is much improved from last year, thanks to the added dimension that Marc Gasol brings. The Lakers like to run the floor off the miss with AD and Lebron, which can now also lean on Gasol’s outlet passing skills. If they don’t get stuff early in the shot clock, they can run action through LeBron or AD via pick-and-roll.
This lineup also crashes the offensive boards with their size and length, outrebounding opponents by 6.0 percent (Extra possessions for LeBron James is a big no-no for opponents). This lineup doesn’t light it up with 3’s, but they dismantle defenses with length, athleticism, and pressure on the boards.
It’s not hard to fathom why this lineup works on the defensive side when you have three Defensive All-NBA guys on the floor. Davis, James, and Gasol are all long and savy with defensive rotations and rim protection, which makes getting anything within 10 feet of the rim a chore. With the luxury of having elite rim-protection behind them, Schroder and Caldwell-Pope can get into ballhandlers and disrupt action.
This lineup is forcing teams to take 3.1 more 3-point attempts, keeping teams under 30 percent from 3, and then they are outrebounding opponents by seven percent. Simply put – they are taking away the paint, forcing contested 3’s, and dominating the boards.
Is it sustainable?
Probably not. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is shooting a blistering 51 percent from 3 which I’m guessing will drop over the course of the season. Dennis Schroder, a career 32 percent 3-point shooter, has already started to fall off a little bit from his hot start.
The main reason this may not last is that the Lakers have so many other lineups that might be more potent. The Lakers currently have five other lineups yielding +20 differential under less time. Injuries and depth might force Frank Vogel to try out these other lineups, and he certainly won’t be strapped for talent. It seems like everything is working great for the purple and gold right now.