D'Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, LeBron James, Rui Hachimura and Anthony Davis. This was the starting five most used by Darvin Ham last year with the Lakers, and it's the one whose JJ Redick also wants to help himself.
“Yes, it will be the starting five that had a record of 23 wins for 10 losses last season” he explains thus in Zach Lowe's podcast. A record that he overestimates a bit since this starting five actually had a record of 18 wins for 6 losses in the regular season, then 1 win for 4 losses in the playoffs. In total, that makes 19 wins for 10 losses, which is still 66% success…
Improve the overall shot profile
However, with the injuries coming, the new coach of the “Purple & Gold” knows very well that he will not be able to line up this group for 82 games. And since the Lakers have hardly moved their squad during the offseason, he will have to find internal solutions to make the team progress.
“In terms of attack, there will be a lot of movement” he promises so. “We hope the overall shot profile improves. We talked about how to get the ball in the paint more. We talked about how to shoot more 3-pointers. We talked about how much room you have to give certain guys with their mid-range shots, whether it’s in the post or in isolation. But I hope the overall shot profile improves. One of the margins (over the opponent) that this team created last year, and historically with this group, was free throws. Other than that, there wasn’t a lot of margin creation, so we’re going to try to create some. One way we’re going to do that is we’re going to really emphasize offensive rebounding and corner crashing.”
A speech that is logical after all. It remains to be seen to what extent it will be applied by LeBron James and his comrades, and especially to see if it allows the Lakers to move up the hierarchy of the Western Conference.
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | LF | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Lebron James | 71 | 35.3 | 54.0 | 41.0 | 75.0 | 0.9 | 6.4 | 7.3 | 8.3 | 3.5 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 1.1 | 25.7 |
| Anthony Davis | 76 | 35.5 | 55.6 | 27.1 | 81.6 | 3.1 | 9.5 | 12.6 | 3.5 | 2.1 | 1.2 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 24.7 |
| By Angelo Russell | 76 | 32.7 | 45.6 | 41.5 | 82.8 | 0.4 | 2.7 | 3.1 | 6.3 | 2.1 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 2.1 | 18.0 |
| Austin Reaves | 82 | 32.1 | 48.6 | 36.7 | 85.3 | 0.7 | 3.6 | 4.3 | 5.5 | 2.1 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 1.9 | 15.9 |
| Rui Hachimura | 68 | 26.8 | 53.7 | 42.2 | 73.9 | 0.9 | 3.5 | 4.3 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 1.5 | 13.6 |
| Taurean Prince | 78 | 27.0 | 44.2 | 39.6 | 73.5 | 0.3 | 2.7 | 2.9 | 1.5 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 8.9 |
| Christian Wood | 50 | 17.4 | 46.6 | 30.7 | 70.2 | 0.8 | 4.3 | 5.1 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 1.4 | 6.9 |
| Spencer Dinwiddie | 28 | 24.2 | 39.7 | 38.9 | 88.0 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 1.7 | 2.4 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.9 | 6.8 |
| Cam Reddish | 48 | 20.5 | 38.9 | 33.6 | 75.9 | 0.6 | 1.5 | 2.1 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 5.4 |
| Jarred Vanderbilt | 29 | 20.0 | 51.8 | 29.6 | 66.7 | 1.4 | 3.3 | 4.8 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 5.2 |
| Jaxson Hayes | 70 | 12.5 | 72.0 | 0.0 | 62.2 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 4.3 |
| Max Christie | 67 | 14.1 | 42.7 | 35.6 | 78.3 | 0.2 | 1.9 | 2.1 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.9 | 4.2 |
| Gabe Vincent | 11 | 19.8 | 30.6 | 10.7 | 50.0 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 1.9 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 1.7 | 3.1 |
| From me Hodge | 7 | 5.9 | 33.3 | 25.0 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 2.0 |
| Jalen Hood-Schiffino | 21 | 5.2 | 22.2 | 13.3 | 60.0 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 1.6 |
| Colin Castleton | 16 | 3.7 | 56.3 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 1.5 |
| Dylan Windler | 8 | 3.5 | 44.4 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.5 |
| Skylar Mays | 17 | 4.5 | 47.6 | 40.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 1.3 |
| Alex Fudge | 4 | 3.6 | 16.7 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.0 |
| Maxwell Lewis | 34 | 3.0 | 19.0 | 11.1 | 66.7 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.3 |
| Harry Giles | 7 | 2.7 | 16.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 |
