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On today’s episode of “Locked on Lakers,” I welcome Matt Moore of The Action Network to discuss an article he wrote about the moves the Los Angeles Lakers made after signing LeBron James. The article was the starting point, but it allowed us to cover all kinds of aspects of this team.
Here’s a snippet:
The Lakers didn’t build a superteam by surrounding James with All-Stars, but they didn’t stand pat, either. Instead of letting James take a turn with last season’s pretty good team of youngsters, or adding smart, crafty, proven guys, they added polarizing games and personalities such as Rajon Rondo, JaVale McGee, Lance Stephenson and Michael Beasley. Every addition brought more questions.
Matt’s article has a ton more to it and I would advise everyone check it out for another way to think of the way this roster has been put together. And don’t let the headline steer you away. He didn’t write that (as is the case with most columns).
To start the show, we try to outline what the team’s actual basketball identity might be based on the makeup of not just the roster, but also the coaching staff and the roles that might best utilize each key player’s skillset.
We then get to the most maddening aspect of all this: That we’re still more than a month away from figuring out or seeing firsthand what this team might actually look like on a basketball court.
So with that as a starting point, I outline the ways this team has been analyzed since it came together. There are really two ways I’ve seen the team analyzed as it stands right now: First, by taking the wait-and-see approach and not going much further beyond that or, secondly, by knocking the roster before we actually see which roles are filled by the team’s players (Editor’s Note: This is known as the “Anthony Way”).
From there, really, the conversation goes all over the place (while still being Lakers-centric). This was a lot of fun.
As always, this is just a tidbit of the full context given in the show. Listen to the full discussion below and please check out old episodes or guarantee you won’t miss any ever again by subscribing on iTunes.