Blinksportsnews247
Forget well. The Lakers aspire to greatness.
That was coach JJ Redick’s message to the Lakers at halftime on Friday night. His anger at the team’s disregard for defensive details boiled over into a few angry timeouts and then into a challenge to improve.
The fact that it coincided with the Lakers leading a game they would ultimately win 119-102 over Atlanta suggests that the Lakers may be on to something worthwhile that has been simmering behind the scenes for the past month.
Since the team moved Max Christie into the starting lineup on Dec. 8, the Lakers are 8-3. They’re sixth in the NBA in defensive efficiency during that stretch. Over the last seven games, their offense has awoken. And their acquisition of Dorian Finney-Smith, one of the premier role players available on the trade market, not only gives clues to the type of team they’re trying to build, but also cleared a runway for Austin Reaves to try to become the team’s third star.
All of it has sort of uncluttered things for Redick, general manager and vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka and the organization. With a month until the NBA trade deadline and a favorable schedule, the next move has people around the league curious about what direction the Lakers will go in the build to the Feb. 6 trade deadline.
Instead of frantically hunting for a third star or pushing chips in on a starting-caliber center, the Lakers, rival executives believe, will move in different ways than it might’ve seemed earlier this season.
Christie has given the Lakers the kind of defensive speed and shooting they wanted in their backcourt, playing himself out of any marginal trade conversations. And the Lakers’ resistance to a third maximum-salary contract has only gone up since their failed Russell Westbrook experience, the constraints of the new salary-cap rules making that kind of roster construction more of an albatross than a luxury. (Sorry, Jimmy Butler fans.)
There had been some early-season consensus that the Lakers would be aggressive in their pursuit of a center to either play with Anthony Davis or behind him, but the Finney-Smith acquisition makes that seem unlikely.
Long linked to a player like Washington’s Jonas Valanciunas, a target for the team this summer in free agency, it’s become clear that the Lakers’ needs to get bigger aren’t as important to them as their desires to get faster, more athletic and more dynamic.
While teams have expressed interest in Utah center Walker Kessler — the Lakers included — the belief in NBA circles is that he’s not available in any realistic trade scenarios, Utah electing to keep one of the NBA’s top rim protectors through the deadline.
The team also probably used its most practical trade chip — D’Angelo Russell’s expiring contract — in the Finney-Smith deal.
Multiple rival executives have said that they don’t think the Lakers should invest some of their limited draft capital (and tradeable contracts) for a player who slows them down — and one who, in a playoff series, would have a limited role considering the overwhelming bulk of center minutes will still fall to Davis.
While the Lakers, and Redick has said it, do need more toughness, finding it on the perimeter instead of in the paint seems to be the goal.
Even as the Lakers’ offense has spiked over the last seven games, they’ve done it while still being in the bottom half of the league in three-pointers attempted and made. Targeting shooting and athleticism on the perimeter — particularly in the form of a player who can operate off the ball — is something the Lakers should have their eyes on. Rival scouts and executives who agree with that are always quick to point out that virtually every contending team is trying to add athletic shooters to their roster.
Blinksportsnews247
