by Paul Teetor
Sports talk radio was on fire with LeBron and Lakers chatter this week.
Herbie from Hermosa Beach was blunt. “I’ve never liked LeBron, even before he came to the Lakers to build his Hollywood brand,” he said. “I think the Lakers are better off without him. And they should get rid of his son Bronny too. He’s not an NBA player.”
Mike from Malibu agreed.
“The numbers don’t lie,” he said. “The Lakers have a much better record when LeBron doesn’t play. I read somewhere that they are now 10-2 without him. He’s too old, too slow, and he just gets in the way of Luka and Austin Reeves playing their best games.”
Bob from West Covina made it unanimous, at least on local sports talk radio Friday morning.
“LeBron’s too old to be a part of the Lakers future,” he said. “Why waste time and money on him when they could be developing their younger players?”
In this era of hot takes and first takes, it was inevitable: the Lakers won four straight games last week without the injured LeBron James and suddenly local sports fans were turning on the Lakers star, saying the team was better without him.
All Ball begs to differ. The Lakers are a better team with LeBron than without him. It’s not even a close call. Any team in the NBA would be better with him on their roster.
But it’s a very real possibility that LeBron will not be on the Lakers next season. He could be playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers or some other team that’s a title contender, and that is bad news for the Lakers and their fans.
Let’s start with the fact that the 41-year-old James is averaging 21.4 points on 50.4 percent shooting, 5.6 rebounds and 7 assists a game in his 23rd NBA season. Does that sound like a player who is a liability?
Even at his advanced age, James is still one of the top players in the NBA, creating a mismatch for most defenders.
Even with two prototypical, old man injuries – a sciatica condition with his right leg that kept him out of the season’s first 14 games, and now arthritis in his left foot that has bothered him all season — he was good enough to be named to the All-Star team once again this year. But for the first time he made it as a reserve, not as a starter, and that signaled a slight but gradual decline in his other worldly game.
But who among us can claim to be as good at our chosen sport when we are 41 as we were at 21?
So, what exactly is the Lakers problem as they sit in fifth place in the Western Conference, bunched in with a second tier of teams looking up – way up — at Oklahoma City and San Antonio?
The primary issue is that when James is on the court with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, there’s too much deferring – mainly by Reeves to LeBron — and not enough defense played by the whole team – except for LeBron and point guard Marcus Smart, a former Boston Celtic and a former NBA Defensive Player of the Year.
But those deferring issues are coaching problems. Those defensive issues are coaching problems. And buy-in problems. They’re not a LeBron James problem.
It’s obvious that Doncic is now the Lakers’ No. 1 option. Nobody disputes that, not even LeBron — who is smart enough to face the reality of the situation and deal with it.
At 27, Doncic controls the game better than anyone else in the NBA. His step-back three-pointer is the best in the league, and he can hit it from anywhere on the court. And he’s a magician with the ball when he takes his man to the basket, throwing fake after fake until he finally scores or draws the foul – which is why he leads the league in scoring at 33 points a game and is among the league leaders in foul shots attempted.
The problem is that Reaves needs to be No. 2 on the Lakers pecking order for them to be at their most efficient. When James missed the first 14 games of the season because of sciatica, the Lakers got off to a 10-4 start and Reaves looked like an All-Star. He was a top-10 scorer in the league. And he had a 51-point game followed by a 41-point game.
In his fifth season, the 6-foot-6 undrafted free agent from the University of Oklahoma had blossomed into a full-fledged star in the NBA. His uncanny knack for driving into the lane and throwing up tough shots that go in, his 3-point marksmanship and his quickness were all helping him maximize his talents.
But when the three players – Luka, LeBron and AR — have shared the court, Reaves has been way less aggressive. Too often he simply defers to LeBron and removes himself as a threat to the defense.
That needs to change. And after all the heated discussion about LeBron’s proper role last week, it already has started to change as the Lakers have now won eight of their last nine.
Reaves needed to figure out a way to have an attack mentality while sharing the court with arguably the greatest player of all-time in James, as well as one of the top-five current players in Doncic.
Before the All-Star break, James, Doncic and Reaves had only played 11 games together. Incrementally, they’ve started finding their rhythm since then. They need to build off that.
That means LeBron playing off the ball, focusing on playmaking and taking advantage of mismatches. It means Reaves seeing himself as a max contract player – which he will be this summer — regardless of whom he’s playing alongside.
It also means both Doncic – who is playing the best defense of his career, compared to his no-effort approach of the past– playing even more defense.
Imagine how good The Big Three could be if they each starred in their roles.
The Lakers have a superpower. They just haven’t been able to tap into it. That should be their focus.
Cracking that code.
In addition to The Big Three needing to figure things out, the Lakers have a defensive issue.
In Saturday’s thrilling overtime win over the Denver Nuggets, arguably their best game of the season, they showed a level of defensive commitment that has been severely lacking for much of this season.
Even Reaves (four rebounds, three steals and one blocked shot) and Doncic (eight rebounds and two steals) made an impact on the defensive end against Denver. Luka actually stood his ground and took a charge on one play. It was a rare sight, but it was a sign he and the other Big Two are starting to recognize the roles they have to play to be successful.
That’s the type of defensive commitment everyone needs to have every night.
Those types of things should be the focus of sports talk radio. It’s absurd for hot-take fans to blame James, pointing to the Lakers’ superior win percentage without him.
Stats can be bent to argue any storyline. They can be weaponized.
What about the eye test? It shows that James is still very much a star. What about James’ stats? They show he’s still a difference-maker. Let’s not scapegoat James or his fit with the team. That’s just lazy.
The Lakers’ Big Three just need to figure things out.
The finger has been pointed at James a lot this season.
His 3-point shooting is down. He’s slow.
Well, guess what? He has dominated the league amid versions of those same narratives for a long time. James is shooting 31.3 percent from beyond the arc, his lowest percentage from that distance since the 2015-2016 season, when he shot 30.9 percent. Guess what else happened in 2016? He led the Cavaliers to their first championship.
The Lakers have plenty of problems: Center DeAndre Ayton’s bad attitude and lack of hustle and grit, Jaxon Hayes’ bad shot, Coach JJ Redick’s inexperience – but James is not a problem.
The Lakers’ holes are the issue. Their inability to jell is the issue. Their inconsistent effort is the issue.
The Lakers aren’t better without LeBron James.
So far, they’ve just failed at successfully maximizing him, Doncic and Reaves.
Those are two very different things.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com
