When the Los Angeles Lakers hired head coach Darvin Ham, one of the things I discussed with the team’s offense is that we may see a “blended” 4-Out 1/5-Out offense. With adequate personnel, this offense can be deadly. Throughout Coach Ham’s four seasons as the Milwaukee Bucks assistant, the Bucks were ranked in the top-10 for offensive efficiency all four years. This style of offense with the proper floor spacing can allow for optimal driving and post-up opportunities, and if you decide to overcommit on help, that leads to open shots for shooters and cutters.
Even though Mike D’Antoni’s stint as the Lakers head coach didn’t go as well as we would have hoped, he, along with Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, are the coaches that I credit the most for the blowup in the 3-pointers taken across the league today. Their teams quickly forced the rest of the NBA to adapt in an attempt to keep up with their high-scoring offenses. D’Antoni, being more analytically driven, significantly emphasized the James Harden-led Houston Rockets to aim to only shoot 3-pointers or layups. This philosophy has even trickled down to the high school and college games, where the Alabama Crimson Tide also have a similar method of thinking. With increased floor spacing, it became more difficult for opposing teams to pack the floor on Harden’s drives to the rim.
Fast forward to this preseason, and we’ve seen the Lakers run more consistent 5-Out concepts. The Lakers ran a 5-Out offense at a small volume last season, only having used it 21.74% of their half-court man-man offense. However, going into the final game of the preseason, the Lakers have used 5-Out concepts at a ridiculous 86.13% of the time! When counting only the Lakers’ “primary” rotation players, the Lakers have scored at a 1.12 PPP (points per possession). The increased floor spacing has allowed for more true one-on-one opportunities via the post or isolation. When an opposing team does decide to help, the Lakers now have a plethora of shooters to find to make an opposing defense to pay for those decisions.
Ball-Movement & Floor Spacing
During the regular season, the Lakers ranked in the bottom-five in 3-point shooting in transition, shooting only 34.4%. So it was a lot easier to pack the paint in and fully commit to stopping drives from the Lakers’ star players. Going into the preseason finale, although it’s a minimal sample size, the projected Lakers rotation players are shooting 57.1% in transition! Will they shoot at this ridiculous pace throughout the regular season? That’s unlikely, but the threat of their perimeter shooting will only increase the opportunity for true one-on-one opportunities and open up driving lanes.
In this clip against the Brookyln Nets, LeBron James pushes the ball off a defensive rebound in semi-transition, and the defense commits to entirely stop the drive. James makes the correct pass to Gabe Vincent, who makes the unselfish one more pass to Max Christie, who knocks down the uncontested three.
The Lakers can now leverage their off-ball shooting threat to open up cutting lanes at the rim. With the Lakers in a 5-Out set-up on offense, Taurean Prince begins to creep up the perimeter as if he’s about to receive the dribble handoff from Anthony Davis. He does a great job cutting backdoor, forcing the foul at the rim. Chris Paul, the lowest defender on this play, can only partially commit to helping at the rim because Christie would be left open in the corner. Outstanding offense by the Lakers.
Love the ball movement on this possession by the Lakers. I have to give a ton of credit to Rui Hachimura here for penetrating the lane. An underrated part of this possession is Davis’ ability to be at least a threat from the perimeter, which forces Dario Saric to not be able to commit in the lane. A good skip-out pass to D’Angelo Russell in the corner moves the Warriors’ defense into rotation, and the possession ends with a Christie catch-and-shoot three. Another high-quality shot was generated by the Lakers’ offense.
Ball-Screen Attack
The increased floor spacing and off-ball shooters can also improve the Lakers’ ball-screen attack. The Lakers go to their Double Drag ball-screen series on this play, with Austin Reaves setting the first screen before spacing out to the perimeter. It’s much harder to “tag” on the Davis roll with Reaves and Prince on the perimeter. LeBron is so far out on the perimeter that it’s also hard for the Nets to help off of him. This improved spacing and shooting allows this ball screen to be in single coverage, leading to a Davis layup.
I love this next action by the Lakers. Out of the Lakers 5-Out Delay series, Russell sets a flare screen that flows into a ball screen. The Lakers have run this play five times in the preseason leading up to the finale and have scored on 1.20 PPP efficiency. The fact that Davis has been a legitimate pick-and-pop threat in the preseason has done wonders for his half-court offense as with Robin Lopez in the drop, that allows Davis to space the floor and knock down the open three. I prefer that Russell and the other primary ball-handlers hit the bigs on these pick-and-pops a lot quicker, as the Lakers have missed opportunities in the preseason. Nonetheless, this is excellent offense by the Lakers.
With enhanced floor spacing combined with the Lakers’ 5-Out principles, the Lakers have the capability of being a top-eight regular season offense. The abundance of on-ball and off-ball shooters is something we’ve rarely been able to say about the Lakers in the LeBron James era. Guys such as D’Angelo Russell, Taurean Prince, Austin Reaves, Christian Wood and Max Christie all have the capability to shoot 40% or better on catch-and-shoot looks. That kind of upside allows for more driving lanes for James and less help on Davis touches.