20 Second Timeout

Much Improved Play by Anthony Davis Lifts Lakers

The L.A. Lakers started this season 2-10, thereby subjecting NBA fans not only to horrible basketball but also to a steady stream of commentary declaring that the Lakers' main problem is their poor outside shooting, disregarding the fact that the Lakers won the 2020 NBA championship while ranking 21st in three point field goal percentage. Anthony Davis is the key factor for the Lakers at both ends of the court, and ever since the Lakers acquired him their fortunes have ebbed and flowed as the quality of his play ebbed and flowed.

In order to understand why the Lakers won the 2020 championship, why they have struggled since that time, and why they have won eight of their past 10 games, one must examine how this team was built. It is important to remember that since 1999 (the season after the breakup of the Chicago Bulls' dynasty) only 10 of the NBA's 30 franchises have won an NBA title, and three franchises have accounted for 15 of those 24 championships: the L.A. Lakers (six), the San Antonio Spurs (five), and the Golden State Warriors (four) are the three most dominant franchises of the post-Michael Jordan era.

It is difficult to win an NBA championship, so it is understandable when a franchise that has a chance to win an NBA championship pushes all of its chips to the center of the table. After LeBron James fled Cleveland for the second time and signed with the L.A. Lakers prior to the 2018-19 season, the Lakers failed to make the playoffs. James then put on his de facto General Manager hat, making the decision to ship out young players and draft picks to acquire Anthony Davis. James believed that he and Davis surrounded by defensive-minded role players could win a title, and that belief was vindicated after James and Davis combined to lead the Lakers to the 2020 championship in the Orlando "bubble." 

Lakers fans who have not enjoyed the past two years--when the Lakers lost in the first round of the 2021 playoffs and then missed the playoffs in 2022--should understand that this was part of the plan in the sense that James mortgaged the franchise's long term future to achieve a short term goal. Maybe those young players discarded by James could have eventually led the Lakers to a title, maybe not, but that did not matter to James: he wanted to win immediately, and he did. Fretting about what might happen in the next few years misses the point that James has already delivered something to the Lakers that most franchises do not often experience: an NBA title. When the Lakers signed James, they gave up control of the franchise, and they gave up the long term future in exchange for trying to win at least one championship at the back end of James' career.

Even if the Lakers do not win a title again until 2030, they will have won more championships in the 2020-2029 decade than most NBA franchises. Lakers' fans are accustomed to roster stability and to stars who stick around long enough to make multiple Finals runs, but this is a different era in terms of player movement and player empowerment. James' modus operandi is to put together a team he likes in a given location, win at least one title, and then seek greener pastures, and after he departs his previous team is generally not very good, because he sacrifices long term growth for short term success. 

This article is not about whether or not James' approach is right, but about explaining the pattern of his career to place his Lakers' tenure in proper context.

After the 2021 season, James doubled down on the win now philosophy, shipping out more young players and draft picks to acquire Russell Westbrook, who James may have thought would be the final piece for another championship puzzle but instead promptly became the scapegoat for the Lakers' disastrous 2022 campaign.

Westbrook is the NBA's third highest paid player this season ($47,063,478), while James ranks fourth ($44,474,988), and Davis ranks 15th ($37,980,720). No other team has three of the NBA's 15 highest paid players (technically, the Clippers have three of the NBA's 15 highest paid players on their roster, but the Houston Rockets are paying most of John Wall's salary so the Clippers only have to pay top dollar to Kawhi Leonard and Paul George).

When three players take up that much of the payroll, there is no long term future: the short term future is win or bust, and "win or bust" will be determined by the three highest paid players because there is not enough money left to bring in any other established high quality players.

Much has been said about how Westbrook fits in with James and Davis, but the truth is that Westbrook functions best as the main ballhandler on a team that plays at an uptempo pace--and he is now a secondary ballhandler on a team that plays slower than ideal for Westbrook because James prefers to be the primary ballhandler and James is no longer willing or able to play at a fast pace for extended periods of time.

First year Lakers Coach Darvin Ham's solution has been to put Westbrook in charge of the second unit, which enables Westbrook to handle the ball and play at a faster pace when he is not sharing the court with James. There have been many players who accomplished much less than Westbrook who have resisted coming off of the bench--Carmelo Anthony's refusal to accept such a role at first resulted in him being out of the league for a while--but Westbrook has not only accepted the sixth man role--he immediately thrived in it.

In addition to focusing on short term success at the expense of a franchise's long term future, the other consistent aspect of James' career is that his teammates have to adjust to playing with him, because the ball will be in his hands unless/until he decides to give it up. Every single All-Star and All-Star level player who played alongside James gave up part of his game to blend in with James. Anthony Davis is the first player who James seems to be willing to embrace as a legitimate co-star--or even as the first option at times--but the irony is that by the time James reached the point in his career when he is willing to step back he hand-picked a "successor" who is generally reluctant to step forward.

Davis played the best basketball of his career during the 2020 championship run, but since that time he has rested on his laurels--or just rested, prompting Charles Barkley to dub his "Street Clothes."

In the early portion of the season, Davis was not aggressive--but in his past nine games Davis has performed at an MVP caliber level, culminating in two scintillating performances in wins versus the Milwaukee Bucks and Washington Wizards. Davis had 44 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, and three blocked shots while shooting 18-27 from the field in the 133-129 victory over the Bucks, and then he torched the Wizards with 55 points, 17 rebounds, and three blocked shots while shooting 22-30 from the field as the Lakers cruised, 130-119. Davis averaged 49.5 ppg, 13.5 rpg, and 3.0 bpg while shooting .702 from the field in those two games. He shot 15-22 from the free throw line in those games while shooting 4-6 from three point range, numbers that indicate Davis attacked the paint instead of settling for long jump shots. 

The issue with Davis has never been his talent--Davis has averaged at least 26 ppg in three different seasons, and he has averaged at least 10 rpg in six different seasons; the issue is availability, and also motivation (which is connected to availability to the extent that Davis does not seem to be as willing or able to play through injuries as the truly great players are or have been).

James gave away the Lakers' long term future because he believed that Davis could consistently play at a superstar level. How well the Lakers do the rest of this season will largely be determined by how available and how motivated Davis is. If Davis continues to lead the way, then James can average 25 ppg without overly exerting himself, enabling him to break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's career regular season scoring record while still having something left in the tank for postseason play. Like most aging players, James has been injured more often and recovered more slowly in recent years than he did when was younger; unlike most aging players, James is still capable of performing at an MVP level for sustained periods.

The Lakers would be foolish to trade Westbrook, because there is no player or collection of players who they can realistically expect to acquire for him who will work harder and provide more of a lift than Westbrook is providing now. If James does not stay healthy and Davis does not stay motivated, it will not matter what Westbrook does, nor is there a trade package for Westbrook that could salvage the season if James and Davis fail to deliver.

I don't expect the Lakers to be championship contenders, but Davis' recent willingness to play aggressively and attack the paint provides a glimpse of how good the Lakers could potentially be if his pilot light does not burn out.

Labels: Anthony Davis, L.A. Lakers, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook

posted by David Friedman @ 2:38 AM

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