Of course the biggest moment of last season for the Lakers was the trade that got them Luka Doncic. He debuted for the team on Feb 10 and the Lakers had a 19-13 record for the rest of the regular season. Surprisingly, the team managed to be average on defense, which was a good sign as it was expected that the Lakers would be elite on offense. However, that did not happen as they were only just average on the offensive end too.
In the playoffs, the Lakers faced the Wolves in a terrible matchup for them. With Anthony Davis leaving the team in the Doncic trade, the Lakers tried to acquire Mark Williams but that deal failed. Thanks to that, their frontcourt depth was a big problem for them and that was well exploited by Minnesota. In the decisive Game 6 that the Lakers lost at home, Rudy Gobert completely dominated the game with 27 points and 24 rebounds.
For this new season, we will apparently have a skinny Luka Doncic who promises to dominate the league and be a legit MVP contender. When he led the Mavs to the NBA Finals two seasons ago, Dallas had two legit centers in Dereck Lively and Daniel Gafford, who protected the basket and turned Dallas into a legitimately good defensive team. However, that would never happen with the Lakers as long as Jaxson Hayes and Alex Len were their main options for Center. So, the Lakers went to the market and signed DeAndre Ayton in the offseason.
Ayton has solid rebounding numbers and he is a strong pick-and-roll finisher who could be a good fit with Doncic. However, lack of motivation has been an issue pointed at Ayton during his career, while his defensive attitude hasn’t been great either. In fact, Portland had a much better defensive rating last season with rookie Donovan Clingan on court (112.5) than when Ayton was on the floor (118.9). However, with him now playing for the Lakers next to Lebron James and Luka Doncic, that should be good enough motivation for Ayton to improve. If he doesn’t, then his NBA career will be over pretty soon.
There is the expectation that Lebron, Doncic and Austin Reeves will form one of the best Big Three units in the league. They shared 423 minutes on court last season and their offensive numbers were excellent as expected with a 121.7 offensive rating. The problem is that the team was equally awful on defense with a 121.3 rating.
Clearly, the Lakers needed to improve their perimeter defense and they signed Marcus Smart for that. In his prime, Smart was one of the best defenders in the league, but he only played 54 games over the last two seasons. They really need him to be healthy and play his best defense this season. The LA team also signed Jake LaRavia to give them some extra depth and he could end up being a sneaky good player for them this season.
The Lakers’ roster seems to be a bit better balanced this season in comparison with the one that ended last season. Assuming Luka remains motivated (and skinny) and that Lebron continues to be Lebron, the Lakers should be able to fight for home court advantage in the Western Conference this season.