So LeBron James uprooted from his hometown of Cleveland for the 2nd time this decade and decided to head for the sunny shores of Los Angeles to go play for the Lakers. LA has been somewhat of a joke the past few seasons ever since Kobe went down with his Achilles tear in 2013. A once proud organization has been reduced to mediocrity as they have failed to attract a huge start to build around, until now.
The Lakers roster still needs work for it to be contending for a title but they should easily make the playoffs if they formulate a strong, cohesive plan.
As always it will be up to LeBron as to whether the Purple and Gold achieve the level of success expected at the Staples Center and there are several ways he can help with that.
4. Play Fewer Minutes
Despite nobody playing anywhere near the amount of minutes over the past 8 years, LeBron lead the league in minutes per game for the past 2 seasons. Even though LBJ is the biggest freak of nature we’ve seen Father Time will always be undefeated.
LeBron will be 34 at the end of this calendar year and if LA is going to play deep into the Playoffs for the next 4 years then they need to preserve him throughout the regular season.
The Lakers have 2 other good ball-handlers in Rajon Rondo and Lonzo Ball so LeBron should be able to take lots of rest and allow those 2 players to initiate the offense in his absence.
3. Focus On Team Chemistry
If any team is going to win the NBA title then everyone on the roster has to laser-focused on the same goal and outside distractions must be discarded with immediately. For LeBron as the leader of the team, this means making sure that team chemistry is as high as possible.
Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma have been at each other this offseason with Lonzo writing a diss track about Kuzma and Kuzma throwing shots the other.
This has to stop now.
Anything that detracts from basketball must be wiped away now and LeBron must now step up like he has done before and bring the team together. He has one of the greatest basketball minds ever and is basically a player-coach at this point in his career. He needs to be leading the young guns on and off the court and setting the example of how to carry yourself as an NBA athlete which has been superb at so far.
2. Let Other People Handle The Ball
For the past few seasons, LeBron was always the one holding the ball on offense as nobody on his team could call plays and make decisions nearly as well as he could. This has now changed as he has Rajon Rondo and Lonzo Ball.
Rondo has always been one of the league’s best playmakers and Lonzo showed last year that he can become one of the best as well. LeBron needs to trust these 2 to run and make plays. This not only gives him more time to rest as mentioned above but will add another line of attack in the Laker offense.
Having multiple playmakers to deal with makes it a lot harder for defenses to contain them as they don’t know where the ball could be coming from next.
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1. Work On The Lakers Shooting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMkO6MHXsYw
The trio of LeBron, Rondo and Lonzo Ball will be the Lakers ball-handlers next season, but none of those 3 are very good shooters. LeBron has worked hard to the point where he is a decent threat from the outside but Ball and Rondo are no serious threats from 3.
This means that other Lakers will have to step up and provide the floor space needed for Bron, Ball and Rondo to penetrate and create plays. Josh Hart, Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope were all good from 3 last season with each of them hitting over 36% from beyond the arc.
There should be a particular focus for the Lakers to work on their catch and shoot game because there will be a tonne of opportunities for them this season with the driving and dishing abilities of LeBron, Ball and Rondo
