The LA Lakers are now worse than last year

After storming through last season’s Playoffs and capturing their franchise’s 17th title, the Los Angeles Lakers are the odds-on favorites to win the chip again this season, especially since Klay Thompson tragically tore his achilles tendon and will miss his second-straight season.

The Lakers have been extremely active this offseason as well, making a flurry of moves in quick succession that have Purple and Gold Nation very hopeful of winning another title in 2021. The additions of Montrezl Harrell and Dennis Schroder add a huge amount of bench scoring and there’s very little chance of Anthony Davis signing elsewhere given how successful he’s been in the City of Angels.

However, all is not as good as it seems.

Even though acquiring the two highest-scoring bench players in the league bodes well for the Lakers’ regular season, their free-agency moves will come back to haunt them in Playoffs. LA doesn’t need help during the regular season. LeBron still looks like he’s in his prime and Davis will only be turning 28 next year. 

Los Angeles has the players to win 50+ games already (even with the shortened season), and the new additions could help them get 55-60, but that isn’t what LA is aiming for. When it comes to the Playoffs, the Lakers have lost a bid advantage they had over other teams, and here’s why:

Inside Presence

I think everyone is confused with how the Dwight Howard saga is ending up. His first season with LA in 2012/12 ended in disaster and him leaving after only 1 year. Then Howard bounced around the league before ending up back at Staples Center, where he promptly thrived in a reduced role. 

D12 only averaged 7.5 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game, but he did it on 72.9% from the floor and his per 36 minutes numbers were 14.3 points, 14.0 rebounds and 2.2 blocks. He was an amazing bench player due to his size, strength and athleticism.

JaVale McGee was another huge loss. His per 36 numbers were a solid double-double whilst hitting 63.7% of his shots and again he was very effective because of his athleticism and length.

Losing this duo and replacing it with Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell was a bad move. Marc Gasol is a lumbering center who is no-where near as mobile as Howard. One of the reasons why the Lakers did so well in the post-season was their size and mobility in the middle. 

Dwight Howard is 6’10” with a 7’5” wingspan, JaVale McGee, 7’0” with a 7’6” wingspan. These were fantastic rim-protectors that ran the floor well, something that is great at getting you easy points. 

Marc Gasol is not able to do what Howard and McGee did. Gasol only hit 42.7% of his shots last season and his per 36 numbers were only 10.3 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.2 blocks, much worse than what McGee or Howard were posting.

The Playoffs

Montrezl Harrell and Dennis Schroder were the top 2 bench-scorers in the NBA last season. Like I’ve said, there’s no doubt that this duo will really help the Lakers in the regular season, especially with LeBron’s minutes.

LBJ will be 36 this season and last year he was the Laker’s primary ball-handler and play-maker. Dennis Schroder is a great regular-season replacement for Rajon Rondo and will allow LeBron to rest a lot more now that decent playmaker is still on the floor.

However, the Lakers will really miss Rondo when it comes to the post-season. Playoff Rondo is a thing; he always takes his game to the next level when the pressure is on. Rondo has Playoff experience going back to 2007/08 when he was with the Boston Celtics. He knows how to win in the Playoffs, something that Schroder does not.

It’s all well and good doing well in the regular season, but it means nothing if you can’t perform in a tough Playoff series on the road. 

Montrezl Harrell

Harrell was the 2nd top bench-scorer in the NBA last season and the NBA’s 6th Man-of-the-Year winner with the LA Clippers. He averaged a very impressive 18.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.1 blocks on 58% from the floor.

This again will really help the Lakers in the regular season as Harrell will bring huge amounts of energy and hustle of the bench, but once again this will hurt the Lakers in the Playoffs. 

Harrell is only 6’7” tall, much smaller than the likes of Howard and McGee. He does have a very impressive 7’3” wingspan, but he isn’t blocking many shots with it which suggests he doesn’t have great rim-protecting instincts.

If the Lakers make the Finals again then it’s unlikely that Harrell will see many minutes given Anthony Davis is the star Power-Forward. If this happens then the Lakers will have wasted signing Harrell given that he would be playing the minutes of a simple role-player.

Outside Shooting

With the moves the Lakers have made, they have completely neglected their biggest weakest from last season; 3-point shooting. The Lakers only ranked 21st in the NBA in 3-point shooting at 34.9%. 

Outside shooting is so important in the modern game, especially with players like LeBron and Davis. Having spot-up shooters on the floors pulls defenders away from the rim lest they give up an open 3. This then gives more floor space for players to attack the rim.

The Lakers did add Wes Matthews to their roster, but he is far from the sniper he was several years ago with the Portland Trailblazers. 

Overall I think the Lakers got worse this summer and didn’t make the necessary moves to build on their title-winning team of last season. They are still the favorites though given that they have LeBron and AD, but I can see this year being a lot tougher than most people think right now.

We’ll just have to wait and see.