The Lakers are Learning the Virtues of Moving, and Scoring, Without the Ball
Pindowns, cuts and preseason basketball! Hell yeah.
Welcome to issue #24 of Throwdowns.
In case you missed it, the Lakers are officially playing basketball again.
If I’m being honest, the first few minutes of the team’s initial game back felt off. The larger external factors obviously played a role in my viewing experience, yes, but the immediacy of the return also simply caught me off guard.
But, once James Worthy lit his pre-game cigar and I acclimated myself to the initial shock of watching basketball again, it felt familiar. Soothing, even. I hope you shared a similar comfort.
So what can we learn from the Lakers’ first couple exhibition contests? The answer is the basis of today’s edition.
Navigating what’s real or simply a mirage in preseason basketball is sort of like tip-toeing through a field of landmines. Okay, maybe not that extreme. But it’s murky.
There are countless contextual nuggets to take into consideration when watching your favorite team play in what is essentially exhibition. Personally, I have found it useful to take notes. Also, to ask questions. A few of my go-to’s include:
Who is on the floor when these occurrences are happening?
What is the general effort level look like?
Is this new? How are players reacting to this?
What are the concepts trying to be installed?
Can this realistically translate in real games?
As I watched the Lakers in their first few preseason contests, I attempted to answer these very questions and was surprised how helpful it was.
Beside the new players making their team debuts, and Talen Horton-Tucker’s ascension to supernova-dom, what struck me the most during the games was the sheer amount of movement the Lakers played with. More specifically, how they moved.
Take this first quarter sequence for example, as there are a few things to take note of:
1) Marc Gasol is both a mountain of a man and an expert in using his shooting gravity.
Watch how Serge Ibaka hugs his jersey at the start of this possession due to the threat of the 3-point shot. And because of Gasol’s size, Ibaka has to nudge Gasol backward to create enough space for Nicolas Batum to shoot through in order to trail Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s cut. As attempting to go over surely would be the equivalent of trekking around the Matterhorn.
That second or two of processing information is all it takes to create separation for his teammates, which Gasol is well-equipped to then loft in daggers from the heavens.
2) The Lakers off-ball players made a concerted effort to be in motion. Notice as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hurdles through his offensive lineman into open space, Kyle Kuzma — on the opposite side — begins a cross slant. Two options created for Gasol to play quarterback from. Both keeping the defense on their heels and guessing.
This was simply one possession among many in the Lakers’ preseason contest that highlights the new mantra to the offense Gasol provides. Which is: keep moving and the ball will head your way.
A simple concept, but somewhat new given last year’s formula.
Last season the Lakers rightfully bulldozed everything through LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Either in pick and roll, isolation or via post-up, the star duo had the ball in their hands and more often than not, represented the first options.
For the role players, their job was largely simple — park behind the 3-point lane and create as much space as possible. Of course the occasional cut, lob, etc would occur. But that felt more a reaction to the gravity of James and Davis than a direct play-call.
This may very well be the direction the team goes go in again. Which proved to work!
But, if between the formations showed in preseason thus far and the chatter of cutting back some of James’ on-ball responsibility is true, the team could actually be previewing a new offensive ethos in front of our eyes.
This is not to say the Lakers were a poor off-ball scoring team last season. In fact, the team ranked 3rd in terms of points per possession on cuts (1.37) and also registered the 4th highest frequency in the league according to the NBA’s tracking data.
Behind a slew of athletic bigs, Davis’ dynamic repertoire and James’ stellar vision, it was easy to see why.
But, this does not mean the club was particularly fast or covered a lot of ground. The team in reality, was 28th in average speed and distance (in feet/miles) covered on offense.
And when it came to scoring off-screens, Los Angeles was 29th in efficiency (0.81 points per possession) and only 17th in terms of frequency.
Adding a player like Gasol, specifically, in the mix likely won’t completely morph the team into playing like highly orchestrated offenses like Toronto or Denver. But, his skillset does allow Frank Vogel and his staff the ability to install more nuance.
An extra wrinkle or two that the club simply was unable to run a season ago with the personnel in place.
Gary A. Vasquez - USA TODAY Sports | Throwdowns Illustration
“I think NBA players and basketball players in general, when they know that they have a guy that’s going to throw them the ball, the cutting and aggressiveness just picks up,” Vogel told reporters after the Lakers’ win on Sunday. “And we came into this game knowing we were going to play through Marc a lot at the top of the key.”
Throughout Sunday’s game, the Lakers did just. Vogel plopped Gasol near the 3-point line and ran action, after action for the big man to pinpoint dimes from.
Most notably, the team leaned heavily on their dueling pindown series to help create opportunities with James and Davis out of the lineup.
Slotting two players on both ends, and setting simultaneous wide pindown screens, Gasol was once again given options to read and react from. This generated a barrage of chances in the paint and helped keep a host of players engaged.
“Our guys had a great mindset to really move aggressively without the basketball and then Marc would find you, especially in the paint,” Vogel also added.
According to Cleaning the Glass, 44% of the Lakers shots on Sunday came directly at the rim, and finished the contest with a 115.7 offRTG in the halfcourt.
“We got a lot of paint catches. Some led to layups, some led to paint-to-great situations. Marc gives us that dynamic. It’s just going to make us that much more difficult to guard.”
Vogel’s comments and the Lakers’ gameplan did highlight the simple fact that players will cut harder and more often, when they know the ball may come their way.
This is not to say James does not make similar reads or evokes the same level of movement on offense. He has made a career doing so. But, Gasol’s arrival does provide the team with an additional hub to run an offense through.
A potentially crucial important addition after the truncated offseason and as James enters yet another round with Father Time.
One can also simply envision the team using Gasol and the offense in this fashion during minutes where James attempts to catch his breath on-or-off the floor. An area where the club struggled mightily in last season.
The off-ball approach and pindown series the team turned to heavily with Gasol on the floor also was ran quite often without him in their first game as well. Where multiple players served as the trigger men, and as weapons off-screen.
Whether or not this new dimension to the Lakers’ offense is another preseason mirage or something that actually translates over to next season, is still to be determined.
But with that said, there is admittedly still a level of basketball-nerd giddiness that comes when envisioning a team with this level of star power operating in a free-flowing offense like this.
The thought of James, Davis and other Lakers ripping off a screen and scoring off a Gasol bounce pass was something previously only imaginable in a schoolyard discussion or a game of 2K.
Fortunately for basketball fans, this may be the new reality. And it could take place all year long.