Upon entering Monday evening, Luka Doncic was a member of the Los Angeles Lakers for nine days, but this section was hardly real since the new star of the had been sidelined with a calf injury. Even after a press conference, a jersey revealing and seeing Anthony Davis ensure for the Mavericks, it always looked like a collective fever dream that we all shared.
There is no way that the Mavericks have really sent Luka Doncic to the Lakers, right?
Well, if you had persistent doubts as to whether or not it was real, they were erased on Monday. Now healed and settled in his new house, Doncic adapted in purple and gold, and although the statistics were not seeing, he and his new team managed to make a show. The Lakers led to a 132-113 victory against Utah Jazz, linked to the lottery, and Dononic displayed 14 points, four assists and five rebounds in the 23-minute effort. This is what we can suppose to be the first of many victories for Doncic as a laker.
This is only one match, but Doncic and the Lakers just gave us our first overview of what the rest of their season will look like. Here are the immediate dishes of the beginnings of Doncic and what it means for its new team.
LeBron James loves life right now
Whenever two stars for high use combine, skeptics tend to say that “there is only one ball”. Dononic and James are two of the greatest creators of head shooting Nba History and both are used to monopolizing their offenses. This suggests that their partnership had at least the potential to be sub-optimal, and perhaps the two have completely decreased. They cannot both dribble at the same time, and Austin Reaves, fresh out of a 45 -point career summit against the Indiana Pacers on Saturday, probably needs the ball from time to time too, right?
Yes, it turns out that putting two of the smartest players that sport has ever seen on the field at the same time can give fairly positive results. James and Dononic played about 19 minutes together. The Lakers won these minutes by 17 points. Both do not interact much for the offense, but this is likely to come over time. James was a dispatched and very successful screening for the former teammate of Doncic, Kyrie Irving, during their stay with the Cleveland riders. Finally, the two seem almost certain to develop their own game for two.
Monday, it was much more a question of benefiting from the presence of the other on the field. James and Dononic both played the sports of larger jazz defenders hunting for switches – notably Walker Kessler – on the perimeter so that they can attack them. Switching is almost never an optimal strategy against Bordeaux de Balle des étoiles, but the Lakers have forced Utah’s hand with some of their alignment decisions (more about them later). James and Dononic are used to facing defenses which are completely key to them, individually. Now they can play defenses whose attention is divided.
James, in particular, looked impatient and refreshed on this front. He spent the best part of his Lakers mandate by begging the team to find him the right handling partner of the ball. This is what led them to the Russell Westbrook rabbit hole. Now that they have finally done it with Doncic, James looked as lively and defensively committed as the season. Now that he does not have to manage the Laker offensive at each possession, he can devote more energy to other facets of his game. The Lakers will benefit enormously.
The adjustment was initially clumsy when James teamed up for the first time with a star on the caliber of Doncic – Dwyane Wade in 2010. But James is a different player today of what he was at the ‘era. He was just a 32.9% shooter at 3 points when he arrived in Miami, for example. In the past two seasons, it has been above 40% deep. His experiences with Wade and Irving taught him all the little tips for playing the ball, optimal screening and a cutting and bad direction technique. Now he applies all this knowledge with Doncic by his side. There are certainly other questions here, but the adjustment between the two main personalities here should really not be a question of debate. They will be great together.
The sly winner of the profession was Jaxson Hayes
The first game of this game? A James lob in Hayes. The second game of this game? A Lob of Doncic in Hayes. The third game of this game? An attempt as Lob de Doncic in Hayes. The first game of the second half? A Lob of Doncic in Hayes. The third game of the second half? You guessed it, a James lob in Hayes. Do you send a trend here?
Dononic is the largest lob of lob of Nba history. James is not far behind. Hayes has a lot of faults as Nba player. It does not bounce well enough for its position. His defense is incoherent. He has never developed a diversified offensive game. But the only thing it does very well with its ultra-athletic frame of seven feet and even more the wing duration is capture passes in the air and bring them to dip them for easy points. This is part of the reason why Hayes always wanted to play with Donic.
“When he was in Dallas and I was in New Orleans my first years, they continued to try to exchange for me,” said Hayes Dave McMenamin d’Espn. “New Orleans never authorized him. He said to me:” Do you remember when we couldn’t chat for you? “I said to myself:” You remember what I told you after every match I played against you? “After each match, I would be like:” If you ever need a big one, I would like to play with you. “Just because of the way he moves the ball.”
Well, now Hayes’ wish has come true, and Santa Claus or genius or whoever did this for him decided to throw a second legendary passer just for fun. This agreement now represents a gold opportunity for Hayes. He is currently playing on a minimum-and-long agreement. Not long ago, Anthony Davis was campaigning publicly so that the Lakers exchange another great man, saying essentially to the world that he did not believe that Hayes was able to play next to him.
Now, Hayes, just before returning to a free agency, is the departure center of a team with two legendary game leaders who put it in place. We are about to see the best absolute version of him for the coming months. It is his chance to make sure that he will not only be a laker during these months, but for the next few years.
Lakers will be a small ball team
When Hayes is on the ground, the Lakers are going to be tall. It is not only a question of Hayes, it is all the programming. On Monday, the shortest starter laker was 6-5 Austin Reaves. Dononic is a forward playmaker and Rui Hachimura and James are avant-garde size. There will be adversaries who really have trouble with the height and the length that Lakers are able to put on the ground.
But when does Hayes leave the ground? Lakers strongly look at the small ball, or at least without ball. It only took them about three minutes to remove Hayes and insert Dorian Finney-Smith in his place. Hachimura was the nominal center at that time, and there will also be James-At-Center units. Lakers can dive on the buyouts market, and the great men with double meaning Trey Jenism and Christian Koloko are there, but for the moment, JJ Redick seems determined to stay with his best players rather than forcing a great man on the ground.
The exact range choices remain to be seen. The decision to use Hayes and Jarred Vanderbilt together, for example, seems a little strange because they are the two non-bushings of the basic laker rotation. But there is a clear logic here. Before the season, Redick said, only jokes that he wanted the Lakers to rise 50 3s per game. Obviously, this did not happen. Only Nuggets, Raptors and Clippers take less. But they took 42 against jazz on Monday, tied to the fourth number of their season.
Lakers cannot claim to be a team that they are no longer. They no longer have the staff to win matches playing exclusively in painting. But with three high -end shooters, they will almost always be able to generate offenses. They can use the non -central minutes to get Vanderbilt and other players of perimeter in the defensive spirit on the ground, then try to get the most out of what they can do offensively, especially as anhletes and cutters. And, more than anything, they can finally start to take the blows that Redick wants them to take.
It may not be the long-term plan, but the deadline for trade has passed and the Lakers have the players they have. This is what makes sense with their list today, and if Monday was an indication, they are ready to get the most out of it.
