Aloha,
Just a few thoughts. All eyes are on the 2nd seed with the Lakers a mere one game back in the loss column. But I’m also keeping my eye on the teams behind us. The Clippers are in 6th now 5 games back of us in the loss column. The 7th, 8th and 9th seeds are all 6 games back in the loss column. Barring major injuries we have an excellent chance of at least the 5th seed and avoiding the play in game altogether.
I have been watching basketball more years than I like to admit. I can honestly say that I have never seen a team with 3 playmakers on one team like we have in Luka, Lebron and the still underrated Austin.
Now the next thing ever NBA teams long for are long, athletic forwards. We have 4 of them in Lebron, Rui, Doe and Vando. And they all can play multiple positions.
Add those groups together and you have something special. Earlier in the year our 2nd unit struggled on both sides of the ball. While our defense on Joker was the talk of the league, I thought our rotations should have gotten more notice. I no longer worry about our 2nd unit. We had at least 2 of our big 3 playmakers on the court 40 of the 48 minutes. And the one 4 minute stretch where we only had Lebron out there we doubled the lead to 18 in the 4th.
I thought JJ’s mixing of our top scores and defenders was brilliant. We generally had 3 starters on the court. Rotating Doe, Gabe and Vando in we always have a strong unit on the court.
I have to give LeBron his props on the defensive side. I had been hard of him earlier in the year but he has looked like the defender he was back when he came to the Lakers. Mix in the huge strides that Rui and Austin have taken defensively, thats why we have been the top defense in the league for over a month. By the Austin is 5th in the league in taking charges. And Luka always led the Mavs in steals. I believe our back court isn’t the liability some people think it is. What is making the defense special is the connection between the players. And I only see it getting better as the group plays more games together.
I am still somewhat concerned by our center rotation. Jaxson has really improved, still it could be our Achilles heel. I really don’t see a helpful 5 being bought before March 1st. I think we may end up promoting either Koloko or Tre to the varsity. That could give us 6 hard fouls. Currently I like Tre more than Koloko. But they have until the last day of the season to decide.
I also believe we should promote Goodwin as well. He has been so much better than Shake and Cam have been. He is definitely a keeper for next year.
I really like this group. I think we bring them all back next year. Hopefully we can keep Jax. He has earned at least a back up center role. Even if they can keep Jax we will need another center. However it doesn’t have to be a star. Someone who can play some defense, rebound and catch a lob. An interesting name out there could be Clint Capella and he could possibly be had for the MLE. We will have up to 5 open roster spots and as we saw this year with the new CBA, a lot of talent fell into the Vet minimum level. This team will be a preferred landing spot for those vets that fall.
I haven’t been this excited by a Laker team since the last Championship. I don’t know if we can win it all this year but we are so much closer than we have been for a long time. This 6 game home stand is very important because we have a tough March ahead. I don’t in that stretch that we beat, if we continue to play like we have been playing.
Go Lakers