Hoops Tonight - Lakers Offseason Breakdown: Does LeBron have enough help to win title?

headed into next season. And as you guys know, the Los Angeles Lakers are really the one team that I root for on a personal level. Obviously, Lebron James is the person that got me to fall in love with the game of basketball in a family that I grew up that didn't really expose me to basketball, so I've kind of a sentimental attachment there. And so these last few years with Lebron James and the NBA will be my last few years having a real rooting interest for

a team. I'll always have teams that I like more than others, players that I like more than others, but nothing like the sort of actual sentimental fanhood that I have for the Lakers. As long as Lebron James is still in the league, So this is gonna be fun for me. We're gonna do We're gonna look at this offseason from a bunch of different angles. We're gonna zoom

in on the offseason moves that they made. I'm gonna do scouts on the two players that I didn't hit in our free agency reaction, that is Jackson Hayes and Cam Reddish. Then we're gonna do a little look at their depth charges to kind of see what boxes the Lakers check across the board. And then I want to do a kind of a breakdown of why I think Rob Blinka deserves a lot of credit for what he's done since the Russell Westbrook fiasco to start last season.

You guys know the joke before we get started to subscribe to the volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore json lt so you guys don't miss any sho announcements. And for whatever reason, you miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, don't forget. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts Under Hoops Tonight, so quick offseason recap in the draft, the Lakers get Jalen Huoch Chafino in the first round.

He's big guard that shot forty percent on pull of jumpers last year in college. Maxwell lewis a three and D wing, an outstanding catch and shoot player with a little bit of off the dribble. Poppy reminds me of kind of like a Trey Murphy type of prospect. Obviously, he's got a long way to go to get there,

but a couple of picks that I really like. And free agency there re signed DeAngelo Russell, Austin Reeves, and Ruby Hatcher Mura, all on team friendly numbers, and then outright they signed Torrian Prince on the bi annual exception, Gabe Vincent on the mid level exception, Cam Reddish on a veteran minimum contract, and Jackson Hayes on a veteran

minimum contract with a player option for a second season. So, Lakers fans who missed it in our free agency breakdown, I already did evaluations of Torrian Prince and Gabe Vincent, so I won't do those here, but I want to hit Cam Reddish and Jackson Hayes really quick. So Cam British is your textbook high potential wing that hasn't really gotten much of an opportunity in the NBA because he struggles to do his job within a five man unit.

There's a lot there's a big gap between what Cam Reddish is capable of in his ability to impact winning in the NBA right now. He has great tools. He's six foot eight with shoes on as a seven to one wing spanyways, two hundred and seventeen pounds after a couple of seasons of NBA strength and conditioning. But he's just not a very good basketball player. His spot aut points per possession is well below a point per possession.

He shot thirty four percent on jump shots in Portland, thirty three percent on catch and shoots, thirty nine percent on unguarded catch and shoots attacking closeouts. He tends to overpenetrate and get himself into some trouble, turn the basketball over, take really tough shots. He's bad in pick and roll. They scored just sixty five points on seventy six Cam Reddish pick and rolls, including passes. It's well below a

point per possession. He did have thirteen points on thirteen ISOs, but I watched every single one of the ISOs and they all are the exact same move. It's like catch on the wing, stare and face hard jab step, drive to the left, hard spin, move back to his right and try to finish at the basket. Although it was effective last year in small sample size, He's also a pretty bad defensive player. He leaves his feet on pump fakes.

It's funny because I used to be really intrigued by Cam Reddish as a defensive prospect when he was at Duke. His ability to slide his feet at his size is pretty unique, but that just hasn't translated to the NBA because he has really bad habits. He leaves his feet on pump fakes, he reaches in and gets burned. He comes out of his stance, which causes him to lose that side to side mobility which is so important to him. Portland unleashed him on a lot of star players last year.

I watched a lot of footage of him guarding guys like Kawhi Leonard and Brandon Ingram and Jason Tatum, and those guys just absolutely barbecued camrad It's just about every single time they had an opportunity to He also doesn't rebound well for a guy who's a good athlete with good size and long arms. He only averaged three point seven rebounds per thirty six minutes with the Blazers last year, so he still has a ton of upside, So I like the signing for depth. Again, anything with a veteran

minimum contract is really low risk. But I don't think he's going to be playing any meaningful basketball for the Lakers, at least not this year. But again, the Lakers have a great player development program, and my guess is that they're just batt on a couple of seasons with Phil Handy amounting to Cam Reddis growing into a useful NBA player.

Jackson Hey six to eleven and a half with shoes on, so almost a legit seven foot seven foot, three point five inch wingspan, two hundred and twenty pounds, so definitely fin although I thought he held up pretty well in physicality situations. He is an excellent vertical spacing threat. He catches and dunks everything. He had thirty four points on twenty two roll man possessions, which is almost a point in a half, which is excellent, and he had forty

five dunks, which is just about once a game. Because I think he only played in forty six games last year. He also has decent touch on his floater in the lane. He took thirteen floaters and made seven of them last year. On defense, I wasn't expecting him to be, but he was actually a really good pick and roll defender. Last year. Teams ran one hundred and seven pick and rolls at him that amounted to just seventy two points. That's just

about two thirds of a point per possession. That was number one in the entire NBA for big men who guarded at least one hundred pick and rolls. On tape, he's just long as hell. With his mobility, can come up to the level of the screen, and he can contest pull up jump shots, and when guys try to get downhill on him, they're just shooting over a seven foot with super long arms who's really active, and they

struggle to finish over the top. He did struggle a little bit in switches statistically, but I actually thought he did well on tape. He gave up about one point two points per possession on switches, in large part because dudes were just hitting tough, contested jump shots in his face. In a lot of situations this season. I actually thought on tape he performed pretty well. The one thing he really struggled with was Luca got him with a bunch of pump fakes and some ISOs, So that's just a

discipline thing. And then super quick guards have been able to turn the corner onto him. I saw Trey Young beat him off the dribble. I saw Kyrie Irving beat him off the dribble. He definitely struggled with some foot speed stuff with some smaller, quicker guards. But point being, I actually think he's going to be a really useful

player for the Lakers as a backup center. Again, a backup center on the minimum who's a good pick and roll defender who struggles a little bit in switches, but is a good vertical spacing threat on the other end of the floor. That's like a home run. I don't think he's a playoff player. I don't think he's the backup center the Lakers are gonna need in a long playoff run. But I think he's perfectly fine to eat

innings in the regular season. Put a pin in that, because we're gonna come back to that idea later on when we start talking about Rob Polinka. So as we zoom out, I want to quick kind of go through the depth chart positionally and then in terms of archetypes. So the depth chart you have at the guard court, Austin Reeves, D'angela Russell, gave Vincent, Jalen hoodsa Fino, that's a really really good guard corps. Three of those dudes

have just got a lot of good playoff experience. Gave Vincent made a run to the finals last year, DLO and Austin Reeves made it to the Western Conference finals. Dangela Russell really struggled against the Nuggets, but he had moments elsewhere. They probably don't beat a team like Memphis in that Game four if Dangela Russell doesn't get red hot from three at some moments attacking in the Warriors series as well. Austin Reeves was just awesome during the

entire playoff run. I think he's still even with all of the Lakers hype and the big contract and everything, I think he's still one of the more underrated players in the league. People just don't realize how good that kid is. And then Jalen Huchafino, who obviously has a lot of upside as a young athletic guard who's got really good physical tools, but he's in a situation where he doesn't necessarily have to be great because he's got

three really good guards ahead of him. Forwards Lebron James, Riha Chimura, Jared Vanderbilt, Torrian Prince, Max Christi, and Max Lewis. That's just an awesome core of Fords, no other way around it. You can't do much better than that around the league. And then at the center position, you have Anthony Davis, who's one of the top three or four

centers in the league, depending on who you ask. I'd say he's probably the third best center in the league, maybe second, depending on how you value Anthony Davis's defensive impact over someone like Joel Embiid. But then you've got Jackson Hayes as a decent backup center, and I do think they're gonna end up bringing in Tristan Thompson with that last roster spot. We will see offensive archetype. So they have four players that are good in pick and roll.

Austin Reeves, d Angela Russell, gave Vincent, Lebron James can all run pick and roll effectively. And then they have four guys that can screen and roll effectively Anthony Davis, Lebron, James, Rouiyatcha, Murray Jackson Hayes. So they're going to be another heavy pick and roll offense in all likelihood. They do also have three rim pressuring forward You remember how much that matters for me with matchup attacking, especially against switching teams.

Anthony Davis, Lebron, James, and Ruey Hotcha Mura can all punish mismatches in the post. They have an arsenal of reliable spot up shooters. This is crazy. Austin Reeves, D'angela, Russell, Ruey Hotcha Mura, Torrean Prince, Max Christie, and Max Lewis. Every single one of those guys was well over a

point per possession in spot up situations last year. And then Gabe Vincent is the only guy who wasn't above a point per possession in spot up situations last year, but he was way over a point per possession the previous season and way over a point per possession in the playoffs, which leads you to believe that regular season

last year was a little bit of an outlier. So going from where we were last year with the Lakers as a team that basically had no shooting to now they are just chock full of dead eye spot up shooters and guys who can attack closeouts at basically every single position except for the center position. That's really really intriguing. And if Anthony Davis and Lebron James, you notice I

didn't even mention those two guys. If those two guys can get their ass in the damn gym this summer and fix their jump shots, this could be a really, really good jump shooting team which could really raise their ceiling. On the defensive end, this is where it gets a little tricky. In terms of perimeter defenders. The only outstanding

perimeter defender they have is Jared Vanderbilt. I'm not counting Anthony Davis because they're not going to use him for that during the regular season, although we know he can and he got two clutch stops against Steph Curry in the Western Conference semi finals last year. But in terms of perimeter defenders, it's basically Vanderbilt and Anthony Davis. Guys like Gave Vincent, Austin Reeves, Torre and Prints are all just kind of okay at it. You know what, I mean,

they're good, they're playable. They're not going to hurt you on that end of the floor. Everything they bring a package is worth it. But they're not going to be the guys that are going to significantly hamper a guy like Steph Curry in a playoff series. Right, thin athletic wings. Remember I have like two different types of forwards. There's the thin athletic forwards and then there's the big power forwards. The thin athletic forwards, they have Jared Vanderbilt, Torrian Prince,

and Max Christy. It's a decent core there, and then big power wings. These are guys that you can switch on to Biggs to guard in the post, but they can also guard a little bit against some of the power wings guys like Kawhi Leonard, guys like Jimmy Butler. In the league, they have Lebron James and Ruyacha Mura, So some decent options there. Rim protectors Anthony Davis and Jackson Hayes. Not a perfect roster, but a pretty well rounded one that should be able to win a lot

of regular season games. And again, when I say a lot of regular season games, it's all relative to the competition. I think the Denver Nuggets were the best team I've seen since the twenty eighteen Warriors, and they only won fifty three games last year. So it's not about like, oh, you need to win sixty five games to be great. When the league is this stacked and this deep, chances are you're not gonna end up getting that many wins.

Like the West was just flat out better than the East last year, and we saw that in the playoffs, but it didn't really look like that during the regular season because they were just beating the shit out of each other and it didn't manifest like that in the standings. All right, let's talk about Rob Polinka for a minute. So I was really critical of Rob Polinka in previous seasons.

I thought that he made a critical mistake overlooking the Miles Turner trade, for overlooking the Miles Turner trade and Buddy Hill trade last summer, in running things back with Russell Westbrook, I think he made a critical mistake making the Russell Westbrook trade to begin with, when everybody in the world who understood basketball knew that was a bad idea. And I'm not like, literally it was the consensus opinion

that it was a bad idea. It was obvious that it was a bad fit with Lebron James and Anthony Davis. Rob Polinka is the president of basketball operations. It was his job to stop that from happening. I've been very critical of him, letting Alex Cruso go. That's inexcusable, losing the Julius Randall asset for nothing, losing the Brook Lopez asset for nothing. There have been a lot of mistakes. Rob Polinka made him previous iterations, effectively destroying a championship roster.

That team won the title in twenty twenty and was a basically a non playoff team for a season and a half. And I do think Rob Polinka deserves most of the blame for that. But as you guys know, I don't have personal vendettas on the show. I'm not gonna sit here and criticize Rob Polinka for all eternity. I am going to do what I do with every player executive that I talk about on the show. I'm gonna point out the good things they do and point

out the bad things that they do. Is the purpose of basketball analysis, right And when it comes to Rob Polinka. Ever since the trade deadline, I think he's done a really nice job. The trade deadline, I think is a little overstated because guys like Dangel Russell ended up really struggling in the playoffs, Malik Beasley was completely unplayable, and then Jared Vanderbilt was kind of matchup dependent and in some series didn't really have the ability to stay on

the floor. But what he did do is he got he got Russell Westbrook off the roster. The Rui Hachimura trade was an absolute home run from a Rob Polinka, and he deserves a mountain of credit for that second round picks that he immediately turned around and recouped. I think in the Thomas Bryant trade, if I remember correctly, I'm not one hundred percent certain, but the point is is Rob did overall a pretty good job at that deadline. And say what you want about Danngela Russell and Moleague Beasley.

They lost some league Beasley asset for nothing, but they were able to re sign D'anngela Russell at a friendly number that they can use for salary filler, and Jared Vanderbilt is going to be a very useful player for the Lakers in the regular season. So overall, I think he's done a really nice job. And then the big one is this summer. I was listening to Tim Bontempsy said something yesterday where he was like, the Lakers did nothing to get materially better. Why is everyone talking about

how they had this great offseason? And I understand the premise of what he's saying, because this is more or less the same team from last year with a couple of role player upgrades, right, Like Gabe Vincent is probably like a maybe the same type of players as Dennis Schroeder. We'll see how I say same level of player. I think Gave's a better offensive player, Dennis is better defense player,

but he kind of filled that need. And then Torrian Prince is definitely going to be an interesting depth option as a guy that can actually shoot a little bit while guarding on the perimeter. But other than that, it was all basically bringing everybody back, right, Like, it's the same Austin Rieves, d Angela Russell, and Ruey hatch Mura

that they had last year. Right, So I agree with von Temps in the sense that they didn't get materially better, But the key is Rob Pelinka maintained a core of a team that went eighteen and eight post deadline last year despite losing Lebron for most of those games, and

made the Western Conference Finals. So he brought all those guys back, which will allow them to succeed in the regular season, but he maintained the flexibility they need to make the trade they'll need to make to improve to become a bonafide top tier championship contender, which they probably already are. But if they find themselves at the deadline needing to do something to surpass Denver, they have real tools at their display, which was not the case last year.

And that's why I think he's done such a great job. I've said this multiple times going into this summer, but there were three things that I think the Lakers had to address in order to become a perfect basketball team, so to speak. I thought they needed an athletic guard who can guard on the perimeter, someone like Bruce Brown or Alex Caruso, because you saw what Bruce Brown did to the likes of D'Angelo Russell in this particular playoff run.

I thought they needed to have a real over the top shot creator Lebron James and Anthony Davis, and their failing jump shots was a big problem for the Lakers in the half court. The only way they were going to do that is either Lebron James or Anthony Davis getting better this summer and fixing their jump shots, or making a trade for someone like a Kyrie Irving right, and then the last thing they needed is a bona

fide backup center that can actually play in the playoffs. Now, I don't think they accomplished any of those three things, but they didn't really have an option to this summer. I don't think they had, like, let's just go through it. Bruce Brown went for forty five million for two years, the Lakers weren't getting him, and Alex Crusoe wasn't available in trade. So guess what they couldn't get that type of player in this particular a free agent run over

the top shot crater. Kyrie Irving re signed with Dallas, and the Lakers did not have the salaries to match for someone like Bradley Beal, so it was not an option this summer. The backup center thing, Brook Lopez stayed and I don't think Mason Plumley was the guy, so there wasn't really a backup center available that was going to fit the knee, that what they wanted. But at the deadline they might be able to do that. They might be able to trade for Alex Crusoe or someone similar.

They might be able to trade for Miles Turner or someone similar to fortify that backup center. If they're sitting at the deadline and they're like man Anthony Davis and Lebron James are still declining as shot makers, we have to do something. They can go trade for a bona fide creator at the deadline, or hey, Lebron James and Anthony Davis got in the gym this summer and fix their jumpers. Lebron's back to where he was in twenty twenty. We're in good shape now. Okay, now we don't need

to make that trade. But no matter what, now they have the flexibility. Ruey Hachimura, Gabe Vincent, Austin Reeves, and D'Angel Russell all make somewhere between eleven million dollars a year and twenty million dollars a year, and they're all in the middle there. So if if the need arises and they need to go after that type of player, they can make that type of trade at the deadline, and they don't need to before. Then all of those problems are Denver problems. They can beat anybody in the

league as currently constructed, except for Denver. Those are Denver problems, And you might not even have a Denver problem if Lebron James and Anthony Davis fix their jump shot and Anthony Davis competes against Jokic in a way that he didn't last year, so you didn't need to do anything. Patience was the right approach in this offseason. It was

the wrong approach last season. Sending that group with no shooting and no forwards into that awful schedule to start the season was bound to put them in a two to ten hole and make it so they were digging out of the standings all season. That was a bad idea, and I was critical of Rob Polinka of that. But this season, patience was the right approach because that roster, that depth chart that I went over, is going to

win a ton of regular season games. Again relative to the field, They're going to consistently be in that one through four seed all season long, and so you can just eat innings and chill during the regular season and then come February, you have a conversation where are we at? Are we good enough? Did Austin Reeves and Lebron James and Anthony Davis improve enough as jump shooters that we don't need it over the top guy? Okay, good? Oh, Jackson Hayes is hooping. We're in good shape. We don't

need a backup center. Actually, no, it's not working out. Maybe we go target a Miles Turner or a similar backup center. Okay, we're getting torched at on the perimeter by this particular type of player, and I'm worried about it against Jamal Murray in the Western Conference finals. Okay, we need to go target an Alex Cruso type of guy. They can make that move at the deadline and maintain the core because of their depth. Again, I read over

the depth chart they've got. They've they've got players to burn at every position now, which is not the way it used to be. And so I really do think the Lakers have had a great offseason, even if it doesn't seem like it on the surface, because they were already awesome. Don't let the sweep fool you. They were the team that was closest to Denver and point differential. Every one of those games came down to the buzzer,

well not the buzzer, but to the final minutes. The Lakers are this close, but they clearly need to make up that gap. They weren't gonna do that this summer, so bring everybody back. Maybe you can flip that gap at the deadline. So kudos to Rob Polinka. This is gonna be a really fun Lakers team. I'm very, very excited to cover them coming into the season. They're gonna be much more enter taining regular season product, and I think they have a real chance to win an NBA championship.

Like I said in our video with the nerd sech guys a while back, I think the Lakers are absolutely the team that is most capable of unseating Denver as the defending champions. We are going to be covering the Golden State Warriors in their offseason tomorrow to keep an eye on the feeds for that. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support and I'll see you guys. Then the volume