Los Angeles Lakers: Will this bold move by Darvin Ham fix the Lakers?
Can moving LeBron James to the 5 help fix the Los Angeles Lakers?
The Los Angeles Lakers are not a good team right now. That doesn’t mean that they won’t eventually be one by the end of the season or that they’re going to miss the playoffs, but right now this team has a steep hill to climb.
Los Angeles is 0-5, Anthony Davis has already missed a game due to injury, and they still haven’t figured out the Russell Westbrook dilemma. After the team’s most recent loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Lakers head coach Darvin Ham said he would think about playing LeBron more at the 5 moving forward.
The Los Angeles Lakers need more than moving LeBron to the 5
You have to love the fact that Ham is open to experimenting with the lineup but you’d have to imagine that the Lakers are going to need a lot more than just moving LeBron to the 5 to fix some of their issues.
Don’t get me wrong, moving LeBron to the 5 in crunch time against certain teams and in certain matchups could help give the Lakers some competitive advantages, but if Ham is hoping this is the one move that will entirely turn their season around, I’m not sure.
Even with LeBron at the 5, the Lakers still have the same shooting issues they had with LeBron paying the small forward position.
At the very least, you still expect that, really, the only thing that is going to salvage the season for the Lakers is a huge in-season trade. And even then, I have my doubts that the necessary environment-changing move is out there.
Right now, the focus for the Lakers should be figuring out their shooting and their overall offense. Through the first five games of the season, the Lakers have the worst offense in the league. While their defense has been pretty good (ranked second in the league in defensive rating), their offense has been so bad that they haven’t won a game at all this season so far.
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Moving LeBron to the center position, at times, is more of a verbal indication of trying to figure things out than anything. We’re living more and more in a positionless era in the NBA. LeBron “playing the 5” may not have the impact that you would expect. But at least the Lakers are trying to mix up their lineups and rotations.