Tbf, the Lakers have the 21st ranked defense. Stocks don’t always mean you are playing defense at an elite level

The NBA has gone too far away from traditional bigs, and I could see this reverse in the coming decade.We don’t need the big guy to shoot threes. We need rebounding and protecting the paint

Amazing defender, good rebounder, if he unlock some offense he’ll outplay his contract imo

His presence alone in the paint makes a big difference. Previous years, there was no intimidation factor and players were not scared to go up.

And I think he’s still playing smaller than his size.

More reps for a team trying to win will make him better imo

it was fair price all around imo

The problem is he has no backup other than Mamu and Vando. Lakers should’ve kept Ayton and Hayes imo instead of getting Sexton

it’s still a historically high price for a sign and trade. giving up anything more than a one first round pick is rare.

Ziaire is awesome man, can’t believe he was even available on a minimum deal. Maybe it was because he was on the Nets last season and went under the radar.

Yep.

Are they top contenders or favorites? No.

But they’re certainly in that tier just below the top 3-4 teams.

Hahahah I bet it’s kinda scary

I said they were contenders a few weeks before the season started in the Lakers subreddit and I got downvoted into the negatives. People were so pessimistic about them idk why.

I agree with you but still so early, every season people never learn

The thing is, those stocks aren’t leading to a great defense, as they are currently the 21st ranked defense

Despite the stocks, they do have to fix their defense before I’d consider them contenders

They aren’t contenders. Revisit this in the playoffs. Not sure why people just assume 10 game sample sizes are representative of an entire season.

They’re not. They are a great regular season team. The team is greatly boosted by the inhuman performance by Luka. But will Luka able to sustain this high usage for the full 82 games and go and perform like this in the playoff against a team that can gameplan the shit out of every hair on your body for 7 games?

They are not contenders, play a real team and win without someone needing to drop 40

Reaves will disappoint again in the playoff, like every year

Luka has already proven that he can bring a team far as long as he has a few decent pieces around him. He doesn’t necessarily need multiple superstars alongside him, just players that can play their roles well. The Lakers roster isn’t perfect, but I do think Luka has decent players around him this season. If they can make a small move at the deadline to further improve the roster, they could be in for a deep playoff run this season.

100% agred. They need to trade for a backup center and if they can upgrade with a 3&D player too. Then they would improve into top 10-15 defensively while still staying at top offensively. When Kessler rests defense suffers. And when Reeves &/Luka sit offense struggles. Just upgrades at c2 and 3&D to me would give them better depth, improve defense alot when Kessler is resting, and help with long season as well as playoffs and bring them from true Championship contender to top 1-3 team level. They are a top 3 team now but it would solidify that standing for rest of season.

The goal post will keep shifting to fit the narrative

At least he’s a plus defender, which i really appreciate

Now all he need to do is to keep being healthy, and less whiney (he wont)

I think “defensive playmaking menaces” means that they’re all very good at communicating and orchestrating their defense

Luka is literally only behind SGA at the point guard position in defensive rating since March.

I’m sure you thought that you sounded cool though.

You guys are so sad and are really insecure. The intriguing part is that this seems all of you as a group behave the same way. You’re either all 13 or you really need some counselling to emotionally mature.