Why the Los Angeles Lakers will be a top defensive team in the NBA

One of the narratives surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers is that the team will be poor at defense, which really won’t be the case in 2019.

The Los Angeles Lakers are in a position to contend for the NBA Championship and are one of several teams with a superstar duo that is ready to fight for the title.

The Lakers certainly have their flaws and those flaws are often blown way out of proportion as a lot of NBA fans that are not Laker fans do not like the team. Whether it is the Lakers’ success or LeBron James, the team does have a lot of naysayers heading into 2019.

Which is completely fine. That is part of the fun of being a basketball fan and nobody should take any of this personal. It is important, though, to filter what is actually the case versus what the narrative says.

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One of the strongest narratives around the Los Angeles Lakers this season is that the team is going to be poor defensively. The Lakers were pretty bad last year defensively and most expect that to once again be their weakness.

And while there is no denying that the Lakers were awful on defense last year and LeBron looked rather uninspired, this is a completely different team with a different group of guys that are going to improve exponentially from a year ago.

LeBron’s new running mate, Anthony Davis, is one of the best defensive big men in the league and is a serious threat to win Defensive Player of the Year. His size, athleticism and shot-blocking ability make him a menace down low and his three All-Defensive honors and three-time blocks championships prove that.

Next to Davis in the frontcourt is no slouch, either, as JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard both present above-average defending and shot-blocking prowess. The two will be even better as well as Davis will be pinned with the more athletic big men, leaving McGee and Howard to play cleanup duty, which they are over-qualified for.

McGee averaged a career-high two blocks per game last season and finished fifth in the league. Howard may be past his prime, but he is still a former three-time Defensive Player of the Year who is capable of being an anchor alongside Davis.

Kyle Kuzma is not the best defender and he will be getting significant minutes in the frontcourt but he will always be alongside either Davis, McGee or Howard, so his defensive shortcomings (which should get better in year three) can be masked.

Another new piece in Danny Green also provides great defense for the Los Angeles Lakers. Green is a former All-Defensive player himself and is going to be tasked with defending the other team’s best two-guard or small forward.

We have seen Green have success in defending some of the best stars in the league before so he should have no problem on the Lakers.

There is a reasonable concern on who will guard the point guard position but the Lakers actually have an answer that most of the league is sleeping on. Alex Caruso is an above-average defender and was one of the best defenders during his tenure in the G League.

He may not be All-Defensive caliber, but he definitely can, at the very worst, be an average NBA defender at the point guard position. After all, Caruso is 6’5″, so he undoubtedly has the size to defend the position.

And let us not forget LeBron James. Yes, LeBron has played uninspired defense the last two years but he was also on two teams that he visually didn’t seem to care much about.

James himself is a former All-Defensive player and is still an elite help defender in making plays happen in transition and at the rim. When the going gets tough and the games really start to matter, I promise we will see a more involved LeBron on defense, knowing he does not have to single-handily career the team offensively.

LeBron is so athletic that it is crazy to think that he will be a bad defender when he puts the effort in. As long as we get the effort (which we should), then he will be an average defender at worst.

So right there you have two All-Defensive caliber players, two over-qualified centers who are going to be excellent and two average defenders at worst that have a lot of potential to grow. Oh yeah, and they also have an excellent defensive head coach in Frank Vogel.

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The Los Angeles Lakers are going to be a lot better defensively than most people like to admit. They might not be the Los Angeles Clippers in terms of defense, but they can easily be one of the seven-best defensive teams in 2019.

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