The Lakers’ biggest problem throughout the season was initially their health, and it has now become figuring out how to use their star players effectively together, since the All-Star break.
JJ Redick, their head coach, spoke to the media and admitted that figuring out how to play LeBron James, Luka Doncic, and Austin Reaves together on the court at the same time is a challenge, and revealed that the coaching staff is in the process of figuring out the solution.
“I think the bigger challenge is when they’re all on the court together, because they all want the basketball, and the reality is in some cases, people have to sacrifice. The other two guys also have to sacrifice when they’re out there with those three guys.”
“LeBron’s usage is low for his career. When Austin has been out there, [LeBron’s] usage is a little less than what it’s been throughout the season. But in terms of that three-some and just the team overall, I was just looking at some stuff, since we started playing zone, our defense has significantly improved, and we’re still around a top 10 offense.”
“Since the Dallas game, the last seven, three of those games, the world ended, apparently. And we’re still a top 10 offense and top 15 defense, which is kind of what was our goal coming out of the All-Star break.”
“We’re just gonna keep pushing until we have it. There’s no other choice. And we’ll keep tweaking stuff. We’re gonna tweak a little bit tonight, so we get Austin a little more run with LeBron. And we’ll just keep doing it,” concluded Redick.
There have been questions about the roster while LeBron James’ future remains up in the air. Luka Doncic has also previously admitted that the trio has not yet figured out how to function at their best when they’re together on the court.
According to reports, Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic will have a big say in whether James even returns next season. If such chemistry issues persist, I don’t know how much longer they can realistically consider keeping James on the team in the same capacity in which he is right now.
Ofcourse he can take a pay cut to tip the scales in his favor to get a contract offer from the Lakers. But at the end of the day, even James wants to win.
The Lakers are currently 10-4 in the 14 games where all three star players were in action together (.742). They had an 11-7 record when James was injured at the start of the season (.611), 14-12 during Austin Reaves’ extended absence (.538), and 6-6 when Doncic was sidelined during the season (.500).
Clearly, their best performance was when all three were on the floor or without James on the floor. The Lakers currently have 22 games left (including tonight’s game against the Pelicans) in the season to figure out the solution to this dilemma. Otherwise, we may see James leaving the team in the summer.
