**LA LAKERS THREAD** Sitting on 17! 2023-2024 offseason begins

Pau 100% deserves to be up in the rafters.
That was the last piece we needed to get to 3 final appearances in a row.
I was so upset when we tried getting Bynum to be our new big man. When Pau should of been getting them touches.
 
Pau 100% deserves to be up in the rafters.
That was the last piece we needed to get to 3 final appearances in a row.
I was so upset when we tried getting Bynum to be our new big man. When Pau should of been getting them touches.
It was the smart play during the lockout season.
 
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Will JR Smith boost the Los Angeles Lakers toward their next NBA title?

Is JR Smith the answer for the Los Angeles Lakers?

Smith is finalizing a deal, according to a report by ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, to join the Lakers and team up with LeBron James once again, this time for the NBA restart in Orlando, Florida. Avery Bradley's decision to sit out the restart to remain with his family and focus on social justice projects opened up a spot for Smith.

What can Smith contribute to the top team in the Western Conference?

Let's take a look.

Smith adds to the Lakers' in-house options

Bradley is regarded as one of the NBA's top 3-and-D wing players -- primarily due to his tough on-ball defense, though he has shot slightly better from 3-point range than league average both this season and over the course of his career -- but he might not even be the best one on the Lakers' roster.

Before signing Bradley last summer by using their room exception, the Lakers first targeted starting small forward Danny Green as their top addition in free agency. Green has started all 61 games he has played and is a superior 3-point shooter (38% this season, 40% career). He also has historically rated better than Bradley defensively in ESPN's real plus-minus (RPM), though that's not the case this season. Bradley's plus-1.7 defensive RPM ranks fourth among all guards, and Green's plus-0.9 mark is not quite as elite among wings.

Remarkably, neither Bradley nor Green actually averages the most minutes among Lakers wings. That honor belongs to reserve Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who has averaged 25.4 minutes and started 20 games primarily due to injury. The much-maligned Caldwell-Pope is making a career-high 39% of his 3s, making him easily the most efficient scorer of the three players this season. Per true shooting percentage, which accounts for the value of 3-pointers and free throws, Caldwell-Pope's .592 mark is tops among Lakers wings, with Green's .564 true shooting right at league average and Bradley lagging at .537.

Playing without Bradley could also give Lakers coach Frank Vogel more minutes for backup guard Alex Caruso, who has failed to earn heavy minutes despite winning the hearts of fans. The Lakers have been dominant with Caruso on the court this season, outscoring opponents by 10.3 points per 100 possessions -- tied with James for the team's best mark, per NBA Advanced Stats.

In particular, Vogel can look to pair Caruso more with James; lineups with both players have been plus-20.8 per 100 possessions, and lineups with Caruso but not James barely break even (plus-0.9 net rating).

Lakers have already added on the wing

To replace Bradley, the Lakers are expected to sign Smith to a substitute contract, reuniting him with James, his former Cleveland Cavaliers teammate. However, before discussing Smith, we should note they chose to sign Dion Waiters instead of Smith in March. The Lakers added Waiters, waived by the Memphis Grizzlies after a deadline trade, five days before the NBA stoppage and he had yet to appear in a game.

Because Waiters played only three games this season, it's impossible to say exactly what he has to offer L.A. Still, recent returns aren't encouraging. Even when he has played alongside stars, such as his year and a half in Oklahoma City, Waiters has never scored with even league-average efficiency. (Bradley's .536 true shooting this season would be the best of Waiters' career.)

On the plus side, Waiters has improved as a 3-point shooter, making 37% of his 3-point attempts during his time in Miami. He also might be valuable in a switching-heavy playoff series because of his ability to defend bigger opponents and post up smaller ones. Still, in most situations, the possessions Waiters would take would be better distributed elsewhere on the Lakers' roster, so he shouldn't be counted on as a nightly rotation player.

The fact that Smith was the second man up at shooting guard beyond the players already on the roster should temper expectations for his role in the restart. So too should Smith's recent performance. Still a quality role player in 2015-16, when he averaged 34.8 minutes in the playoffs en route to Cleveland's title, Smith saw his game deteriorate the following two seasons. In fact, 2015-16 is the last time he had a double-digit Player Efficiency Rating (PER) in either the regular season or playoffs. (He checked in at 12.4 in the regular season and 12.5 in the playoffs. League average for all players is 15.0, though it tends to be lower for wings.)

A 40% 3-point shooter during the championship season, Smith slipped to 35% the following year before rebounding slightly to 37.5% during his last full season. And remember, that was more than two full years ago. Since then, he has played just 11 NBA games, all of them in October and November 2018.

Smith will turn 35 during the rescheduled playoffs and has extra mileage because he entered the NBA directly out of high school (his 971 games rank tied for 17th among active players, per Basketball-Reference.com). So it's unlikely the aging process has reversed itself.

Add it up and the Lakers shouldn't be counting on Smith as anything more than a depth player during the seeding games -- games which won't be especially meaningful to them -- and a possible wild card to throw in when things are going poorly in the playoffs.

Key question: Who finishes games?

In one way, not having Bradley will make Vogel's decisions about which players should finish games somewhat easier. The Lakers had no consistent finishing five, with only certainties being James (96% of minutes deemed clutch by NBA Advanced Stats, which uses the final five minutes of games within five points as a cutoff) and Anthony Davis (86%).

Caldwell-Pope (76%) was the most common wing on the floor in clutch situations, with Green (51%), Caruso (45%) and Bradley (34%) all options depending on matchups and whether the Lakers wanted to go small. I'd expect Green's clutch minutes to go up in the playoffs without Bradley as an alternative, but Bradley's absence also means more opportunity for Rajon Rondo (26%) and Kyle Kuzma (31%) to play their way into crunch-time lineups.

Certainly, Vogel would rather have Bradley than not, especially to throw at the league's best perimeter scorers late in games. But the Lakers will still have no shortage of options without their starting shooting guard.
 
Nice to see you're still around grittyman grittyman .

I think the team would best be served with Caruso starting in Bradley's place (secondary ball handler, he and Bron are productive together) myself. But I think KCP will get the starting nod because he did well when Bradley was hurt earlier in the season.
 
Nice to see you're still around grittyman grittyman .

I think the team would best be served with Caruso starting in Bradley's place (secondary ball handler, he and Bron are productive together) myself. But I think KCP will get the starting nod because he did well when Bradley was hurt earlier in the season.
Good to see you’re still here fighting the good fight pmatic pmatic lol. The starting lineups can go either way, both are solid options... the closing 5 is much more important. I do wonder if Vogel will decide on a set lineup or just continue with the strategy he’s been using all season?
 
Fake news, Lou Williams said he was 50-50 on returning about a week ago. There is zero indication that the clippers will face any bad luck this season so I guarantee he’s going to be there
clipset full of spineless clowns so he for sure gonna play lol
look at Bev
one week he barking about there's more important **** next week he in the gym yelling he's ready for the ring (after AB opts out lol)
 
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