LeBron James has many basketball-related superpowers, but perhaps his greatest is his ability to cover up squad construction errors. In a league increasingly obsessed with goals, the Lakers have struggled with most measures of modernity. They are in 22nd place at 3 percent points and 25th at 3 attempt points, which, in turn, has given them an average offensive half-court number. It doesn’t matter when you have LeBron. He can suspend an attack in the transition and completely take control of the extent of the games. He can sustain superior defense even without his best player. He is so uniquely talented and versatile that his mere presence makes constant victory an inevitability. Whatever your team’s need, it can provide. Even though Anthony Davis has lost nearly half the season so far, James had the Lakers in second place in the Western Conference on Saturday.
Well, now James is gone indefinitely with a high ankle sprain, and suddenly, the flaws he covered become glaring. They are now reduced to a single NBA ball handler, Dennis Schroder. His defense, increasingly dependent on basketball IQ, without the athletics that helped make last year’s unit so special, has just lost its smartest player. LeBron generates the kind of photo that can make bad snipers look good. This was a lineup built to be carried by two players who are not healthy enough to carry it, and until James or Davis return, the Lakers are vulnerable.
The defending champion has 16 games scheduled for next month. At least half of them are against candidates for the championship. During this period, the Lakers will play against Suns, 76ers, Bucks, Clippers, Heat, Nets and Jazz twice. Play in potentially difficult clashes with Boston and Toronto and two games in Dallas after the first 16 games and the Lakers certainly stumbled on the hardest part of their schedule without their two best players.
This brings us back to the weaknesses that James, for the time being, can no longer help the Lakers overcome. The negotiation deadline is in a few days and, in a way, this makes the moment of LeBron’s injury a blessing. If it had happened a week later, the Lakers would have been out of luck. They would not have had a chance to update the list through negotiations that they are now free to consider.
The Lakers are not ideally placed to make a term deal, however. They have only one negotiable choice for the first round and that is in 2027. They have only $ 1.5 million in space under the hard limit and, due to their empty roster spots, they would practically have to match the salary of any player they purchase in dollar-for-dollar. The easy answer is to tie one or two second-round choices to Alfonzo McKinnie and see if there are any veterans who are worth getting minimum wage deals. Wayne Ellington would be a great choice as a sniper, and Kent Bazemore is also worthwhile if the Golden State wants to continue its youthful movement. These are not needle movers, however. The Lakers could swing Talen Horton-Tucker for teams with talented, but better-tuned youngsters (like Charlotte’s Devonte ‘Graham, who is fighting for kicks in a crowded backcourt), but his impending restricted free agency limits its value. If the Lakers want to add a real impact piece, they will have to dive into their rotation. There is an obvious candidate.
The rehiring of Montrezl Harrell in this off-season will be extremely difficult. As he signed for only one guaranteed season, the Lakers can only offer him a 20 percent increase. That is about $ 11.1 million. He made a discount to sign with the Lakers in the off-season, ostensibly, to increase his value before a more favorable free market for 2021. Almost half of the league may have a significant limit in this off-season. Someone is going to offer him more than that.
There is a reliable case that Harrell is redundant in Los Angeles as it is. Davis will play more central minutes in the playoffs. Marc Gasol may be limited, but the original five healthy initials with him, James, Davis, Schroder and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope destroyed opponents by 13.9 points for 100 possessions. There is no reason to separate this unit, and if the Lakers fail to do so, they will have fewer minutes available to allocate to Harrell. They may even have a replacement ready. The Lakers are reportedly interested in getting Andre Drummond out of the takeover market. If they think he’s coming, they can free up minutes for him and use Harrell to fill another need with a single move.
The second disadvantage for Harrell’s low number this season is to match his salary. If the Lakers deal with it alone, they can only absorb one player who wins about $ 10.7 million. George Hill of Oklahoma City and Cedi Osman of Cleveland, both of James’s former teammates, fit in this spot, but both would likely require draft capital that the Lakers are not eager to negotiate and, more importantly, neither of them finds the right balance between kick and ball. deal with what they need.
Add an extra salary and the Lakers can get a little more ambitious. Harrell and McKinnie take them to Norman Powell’s salary, and Toronto needs a center. Powell, like Harrell, has a player option this off-season, but if he refuses, his team will have all Bird Rights and can therefore hire him again for anything up to the maximum. Swap McKinnie for Wesley Matthews and the Lakers are within reach of Terrence Ross. He is under contract for the next two seasons with decreasing salaries, a bonus for a Lakers team that will have to rehearse Schroder, Horton-Tucker and Alex Caruso this summer.
Powell averages 19.6 points on almost 45 percent of 3-point pitches in an escape season, and Toronto will certainly ask for Horton-Tucker or that unprotected 2027 first-round player if they are going to trade him. Orlando can too. Ross has been constantly shooting above the league average behind the arc with the Magic, despite playing with below average shipowners. Imagine the improvement he could see when James returned. Both shoot well enough to make room for the remaining Lakers, even without him.
The short-term disadvantage to negotiating with Harrell is obvious. He is the fourth top scorer and one of the most likely candidates to increase use without James. The attack will already be worth it, and that complicates Laker’s even more ambitious deals. Schroder, for example, is also months away from the free agency and has so far failed to agree to an extension with the Lakers. His $ 15.5 million salary could be his ticket to a highly successful business, and negotiating it would come with the added bonus of freeing up the $ 2 million he has in improbable incentives from his books on what to do. refers to the hard cap.
But as tempting as a home run hit in, say, Victor Oladipo may seem, the risk of giving up Schroder with James and Davis already defeated is enormous. The Lakers would have to obtain a ball handler who could make a reliable contribution as much as Schroder just to stay afloat, and there aren’t many of them out there. Some, like Evan Fournier from Orlando, may fit in better with LeBron, but would fight in the interim without him.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope already fits that bucket, but his long-term money will keep certain suitors at bay and, like Harrell, James, Davis, Horton-Tucker and Markieff Morris, he is represented by Klutch Sports. Harrell, in his first year with the team, may not have the equity to avoid a deal for an undesirable location, but Caldwell-Pope was perhaps the third best player on his champion team. He is not someone to be negotiated lightly.
Any trade that the Lakers considers will ultimately depend on the return package. Caldwell-Pope, like a 3-and-D, fits with most teams. Harrell, a totally offensive center, fits with less. Finding a home for him would not be easy. Charlotte was interested in the off season and may still be now. Sacramento needs a long-term solution, but Richaun Holmes already does many of the same things. Some teams would see Harrell as a genuine value. For others, it is the salary filler. If the Lakers intend to make a fair and successful negotiation based on him and his maximum number, it will be essential to find a team that genuinely wants it.
James helped the Lakers build a cushion without Davis, but not a huge one. They are now just four games ahead of the San Antonio Spurs, currently ranked seventh in the Western Conference. The Spurs need a little regression, but the fervent Mavericks, currently behind the Lakers for six games, are not. Assuming James and Davis make it back in time for the extended race, their current leadership probably protects them from the game round, but slipping so hard is hardly inconceivable. Laker’s lineups without James were topped by 4.5 points per 100 possessions this season, according to Cleaning the Glass, and that includes units with Davis. Without both, the attack is in the 17th percentile in terms of efficiency. In the remaining 186 goods that also did not have Schroder, they do not even reach the 1st percentile. The Lakers will not score many points in the coming weeks.