Los Angeles Lakers Offense Breakdown
The Lakers offense is bad, really really bad.
The Los Angeles Lakers offense is a disaster, shooting 22% from 3, and currently sits as the worst offense in the NBA by a MILE. Describing their offense as dysfunctional is giving them a compliment. A combination of incredibly poor shot selection with awful 3s in transition, horrible decision-making when they decide to drive that leads to live ball turnovers or stopping any advantage combined with some of the worst execution I have seen from an NBA team in a long time - players not knowing plays or what to do when running a set - especially ATO’s leads to a horrendous offensive performance.
Full Video Breakdown:
If you enjoy these breakdowns, please consider becoming a paid subscriber!
🏀Resources:
Basketball Playbooks | Coaching Clinics | Coaching Membership | Newsletter
👉🏻Follow:
When building a team around LeBron James, there are 2 main options that have worked in the past - an athletic, disruptive defensive athletic team, or a high-IQ team filled with shooters and good decision-makers.
There is obviously some overlap but the Heat teams that he won championships with had Dwayne Wade & Chris Bosh surrounded by players like Shane Battier, Mike Miller & Ray Allen as well as adding players on the fringe to give quality minutes like Norris Cole, Mario Chalmers, & Birdman.
In Cleveland he was surrounded by Kyrie & Kevin Love with players added to the mix like JR Smith, Iman Shumpert, and Tristan Thompson and the players on the fringe were players like Kyle Korver, Delly, & Channing Frye.
The Lakers even won a title with LeBron & AD anchoring an extremely athletic & disruptive defense surrounded by great role players like KCP, Kuzma & Caruso with quality fringe players like Rondo, Morris & Dwight Howard.
HOW could the Lakers’ management screw this up so badly then? Getting rid of the 3 most important players that fit with LeBron and turning them into Russell Westbrook and then trying to add only one-way players and devolving into the current roster has to be one of the worst mismanagements of a roster in NBA history.
As it currently stands the Los Angeles Lakers offense is currently DEAD LAST in the NBA by 5 points per 100 possessions. They are not even close to a competent unit, and when I looked it up they currently would be ranked the 13th-worst offense in NBA HISTORY. Yikes is an understatement. Let’s also get this out of the way - Darvin Ham & the Lakers staff are not directly at fault for how bad it is, but they are not completely absolved of all blame - we’ll touch on that in a bit.
Quick note: the schedule has changed slightly for these deep dive breakdowns, where I am switching to 2 of these a week and then random plays for breakdowns during the week. This way I can focus on deeper dives & then get more quick-hitting breakdowns as well.
Shooting
In the game against the Nuggets they shot 26.7% and it not only was their best shooting game of the year, but their 3-point shooting accuracy also went UP. I think we all agree it won’t be THIS bad, but it’s hard to be encouraged even if the team returns to some of their averages because the shots they are taking are open because teams are taking away the Lakers’ best options. If Pat Beverly is the best-shooting Laker on the roster, it’s going to be a long season.
Spacing
As noted in the Lakers X’s & O’s preview, Darvin Ham took the same concepts and principles Budenholzer uses in Milwaukee with their 4-Out spacing that can flow and blend into 5-Out. Placing blue boxes down on the practice facility to teach where to space the floor in the Slots, Corners, and Dunkers Spot. The Lakers have not run 4-Out often preferring to space the floor in 5-Out and rarely blending the two seamlessly and have guard space in the dunker’s spot.
A reason the Bucks 4-Out & 5-Out blended is the ability of the bigs (outside of Giannis) to space and shoot the 3 ball, with Lopez and Portis both being threats from downtown.
Outside of hot Bubble shooting in the playoffs, Anthony Davis has been a poor 3-point shooter and that has continued this season so stretching the defense with him doesn’t work as it does with the Bucks. Combined with carrying an insane defensive load, AD is struggling to even get into the post and create scoring chances for himself.
Playing one poor shooter is viable for NBA offenses, sometimes getting away with 2 if they are high IQ & good cutters - but playing 3-4 non-shooters who make bad decisions and low IQ and your offense is going to be terrible.
Taking Space Away
Clogging Lane
Teams are taking away space in the lane, mainly by overhelping in the paint and ignoring everyone else on the court not named LeBron James. On multiple occasions, you will see all 5 players in the lane just waiting for the drive.
If the Lakers get a switch or get an advantage teams are just preloading help and tilting their defense to that side of the floor. Here we can see Steph Curry low on the ball-side block with the rest of the Warriors’ defense zoned up on the ISO.
On side ballscreens or empty ballscreen action, the defense will sit under the rim and the opposite defenders will have a foot in the paint and there will be no place to attack or then kick out.
In the middle of the floor, like in LeBron James ISO here at the nail, the defense will all be able to get a piece of the paint to be ready to help.
Sagging Off Non Threats
When the Lakers play Anthony Davis & Russell Westbrook at the same time, it gives the defense 2 players to sag off and closes driving lanes. A way teams are going this is “Gapping” or sitting in the gaps to show their chest and stop any drives.
Especially when AD is spacing the floor, his man will just completely ignore him like Nurkic here.
Bad Spacing
Not helping themselves with bad spacing, the Lakers have had some wonky looks on offense with their weakside spacing. It has improved slightly, but overall any advantage they might create will stop because the spacing is so poor. What is Beverly supposed to do here? His only option is to shoot the ball since everyone is covered and his drive will be stopped since the Warriors can recover from any decision.
Another example here is with a LeBron/AD ball screen with 3 players just sitting in the corner.
For reference, when setting a side ballscreen here is what great spacing should look like, with a player in the Dunkers spot.
LeBron/AD Ballscreen
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Half Court Hoops - Coach's Cut to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.