Even though the Lakers bowed out of the playoffs a number of weeks ago, there are still things to be learned about the team as the postseason rolls on.
With the conference finals underway in both the West and East, the quality of play is nearly at it’s peak. After bouncing the Lakers, the Wolves knocked off the Steph Curry-less Warriors and are squaring off against a Thunder team that grinded out a seven-game series against the Nuggets following their rout of the Grizzlies.
On the other side of the country, both the Knicks and Pacers took advantage of good fortune to advance to the precipice of the NBA Finals. Indiana knocked off the Bucks without Damian Lillard and the Cavs without a host of players while New York eliminated the Celtics without Jayson Tatum. None of that is to take away from their accomplishments as every playoff run is full of good and bad breaks.
Through all the series and the first games of the Conference Finals, there’s been some lessons that the Lakers should be learning as they get set to reassemble their team this offseason. Let’s take a look at three of the most notable.
Athletes needed
There were a number of things the Lakers lacked this season, specifically after the Luka Dončić trade. One of those, which President of Basketball Operations Rob Pelinka noted in his exit interview, was the need for athletes.
His comments discussed the need for defensive wings, but it’s a hand-in-hand argument as good defensive wings in the modern NBA are often athletes. When looking at the version of the Lakers that lost to the Wolves, the lack of athleticism was glaring even then. Jaden McDaniels had his way because few Lakers could hang with him.
Similarly, the Lakers had no solutions whatsoever for Anthony Edwards, requiring instead the entire defense to shift their focus to him, which allowed others to often beat the purple and gold.
One of the underlying characteristics of the players the Lakers pursue, no matter the position, should be a requisite level of athleticism. Whether that’s with a lob-catching big man, a wing that can do a bit of everything or a guard with some speed or anything in-between, the Lakers need to raise the level of athlete on the roster this summer.
The need for two-big looks
There has been plenty discussion of the Lakers’ need to acquire multiple centers this offseason, but it should go even a step further than that.
Multiple times this postseason, teams have found success with lineups featuring multiple big men.
Cleveland built an entire roster around the idea of two bigs. New York played lineups with both Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson against the Celtics and flourished. Oklahoma City has both Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein. Minnesota almost always has two of Julius Randle, Naz Reid and Rudy Gobert on the floor.
Look at just about every team that won a playoff series and you’ll likely see a lineup that featured two big men that had success. Going further back to when Luka was in Dallas, the Mavs had multi-big looks, often closing with PJ Washington alongside a center on their team that made the Finals.
Think back to the 2020 bubble team, who could put Markieff Morris alongside Anthony Davis.
Meanwhile, the current Lakers have zero big men.
Perhaps LeBron could be considered the secondary big man in those lineups. He was magnificent this postseason defensively as the de facto center. Maybe he reinvents himself one more (and final?) time to be more of a traditional power forward, at least defensively.
But even in that scenario, the Lakers don’t have depth behind him. Rui Hachimura is likely the nominal big man, and he’s not really regarded as a “big” so to speak, but more of an oversized wing.
Perhaps the centers the Lakers acquire can play alongside one another, though that feels unlikely. And while you can win without necessarily needing a two-big look, these playoffs have shown that still having that in the back pocket is a valuable weapon.
The Lakers are more than a year away
This one might be a bit of an overreaction to watching the Thunder steamroll the Wolves through the first two games, but watching that series, it certainly doesn’t feel like the Lakers are close to that level.
Ultimately, Minnesota was just clearly better than the Lakers and if not for some horrid 3-point shooting in Game 5, they would have won in a blowout to close the series. LA had run out of possible solutions to the problems the Wolves gave them.
So, seeing that same Wolves team get blown out in their own right certainly makes it seem like the Lakers aren’t all that close. There’s a level these teams are playing at which feels impossible for the Lakers to reach for 48 minutes across an entire series.
In stretches, this team played at that level. Maybe it was for one quarter, one half or maybe even one game. But sustaining that level of play for two weeks for a whole series? That didn’t happen. And that’s just to win one series. To win a title, you have to do that four times.
It’s not necessarily a bad thing that the Lakers aren’t close. Luka is only 26 years old and there’s plenty of time to build around him. But it’s hard to imagine the Lakers being in a situation a year from now where they’re playing for a title.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
