Los Angeles Lakers: The number one priority this summer
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Lakers have a lot of different rumors and reports circulating the internet but have one major priority that the front office must hone in on.
The Los Angeles Lakers are going to have an exciting summer and have already had a speculation-filled summer before free agency even beings.
The front office opened Pandora’s Box by trading for superstar big man Anthony Davis and is now tasked with building a team around Davis, LeBron James and Kyle Kuzma that is deep and talented enough to contend for the NBA Championship.
With the Golden State Warriors likely losing Kevin Durant after he declined his player option and Klay Thompson likely missing most of the season with an ACL tear, the Western Conference is anybody’s for the taking in 2019.
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And unless Kawhi Leonard stays in Toronto, the Eastern Conference does not have every much title experience. LeBron dominated the Eastern Conference for nearly a decade, so if the Lakers do make the NBA Finals, the tea they will come up against will more than likely have no Finals experience.
It is an exciting time to be a Lakers fan and if the front office can check all the boxes this summer then it is not crazy to expect the team to win the Championship this season. There is one major box that needs to be checked off first, though, after the team traded for Davis.
The Lakers can certainly be successful without checking off this box but fulfilling this priority would substantially bolster the team’s chances of winning it all.
The Los Angeles Lakers need to focus on adding defense, in particular, backcourt defense, in order to be successful in 2019.
One of the major things that the Lakers lost in the trade for Davis that not a lot of people are talking about is the defensive prowess of Lonzo Ball. While he had his frustrations offensively at times, Ball was easily the best defender the Lakers had and looks to be on track to eventually be named to an All-Defensive team.
Ball could not only play great isolation defense but was often the motor that drove the defense with his switches and takeaways. Even when LeBron came back from his injury, the Lakers were not doing great because of the defensive presence the team was missing with Ball out of action.
We have heard the rumblings of the team potentially being interested in Patrick Beverley as well as adding a defensive piece to the backcourt, which is great. The only thing the Lakers must avoid is making that “great defensive piece” be a three and D guy that really is not all that great at defense.
Someone like J.R. Smith, who is over the hill, or Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who was not the best defensively, should not be the marquee defensive piece. This does not mean that these guys are bad additions, they just should not be the sole defensive help for next season.
Beverley is a good place to start and other options such as Ish Smith or Danny Green should be explored.
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That, mixed with the defensive presence that Anthony Davis brings near the rim, will make the Los Angeles Lakers a much tougher team to score against than a year ago with Ball out.