The Los Angeles Lakers made it a point to add more length and size in free agency, especially on the perimeter.
However, the Lakers appear to be looking for more speed and athleticism in the trade market given their struggles as of late.
After a recent rough stretch, head coach Darvin Ham made a change to the starting lineup when he benched D’Angelo Russell for Jarred Vanderbilt. The initial thought was that Ham wanted to emphasize the defensive end of the floor.
But there has also been more of an emphasis on the Lakers playing a switching defense.
“You never want to minimize the game experience, but with the way the travel schedule is set up and game schedule is set up, sometimes you have to try to work on things in real life game minutes that you want to be able to add to your repertoire,” Ham explained before Thursday’s game against the Charlotte Hornets.
“That’s been the case with switching. We have certain games out there that are big, long, athletic wings along with A.D. and other guys where we’re able to switch and obviously make adjustments when A.R., D-Lo and those guys are out there and involved in pick-and-rolls on the post.
“So it gives us a chance to again, work on something while trying to win a game. You can never lessen the importance of that, but at the same time, you got to be willing to go out there and throw some things out there that you could get footage on, study and try to be better at and make it a part of your war chest permanently.”
The month of December has been a rough patch for the Lakers due to traveling a lot and struggling since the In-Season Tournament. They were able to get a practice in on Wednesday, and the results were much better against Charlotte defensively, particularly in the second and third quarters.
With there not being much practice time though, Ham detailed the process of making such a big change in scheme defensively.
“As I said, it makes film study that much more important and the times we get to have a shootaround,” he said. “It’s not just our team, but I think the league in general, shootarounds have to basically become your practice time. Then there’s different challenges you have to be aware of and different points of emphasis.
“Like you have a team constructed a certain way to have different talents on both sides of the ball, we feel like we have a team that can be extremely elite on the defensive side of the ball, as well as heavily talented offensive players, when you play with force you get a lot of good things done.
“But just sticking to the defense, it’s two-fold. It’s what you know your group will be able to thrive at but it’s also preparing for different opponents as well. That also helps you. As I mentioned, you have to use some of these games to try to get footage on different schemes you have to try down the road and that you want to make a part of yourself, a part of your team going forward.
“So just trying to navigate that balance of implementing something I know is going to be great for us, something that makes us a really good defensive team and another option we could go to and also preparing for various teams. Some are 3-point heavy, some are paint heavy, or both. So just have to be ready and have that balance and diversification and feel comfortable pushing a certain button versus various opponents.”
Lakers rumors: Dorian Finney-Smith & Royce O’Neale interest
Teams can never have enough 3-and-D players, and the Lakers aren’t exempt despite their current wing depth. In fact, L.A. is reportedly interested in Dorian Finney-Smith and Royce O’Neale as potential trade targets.
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