The Los Angeles Lakers having both Luka Doncic and LeBron James together on the same team has a massive effect on the rest of the squad. James and Doncic are two of the best passers in the game today and that will only create open looks for the rest of the team. One of the biggest beneficiaries of that will be Dorian Finney-Smith.
Finney-Smith is the ideal 3-and-D wing and had played with Doncic together in Dallas and has now had some time with LeBron on the Lakers. But even with all that experience, he admitted he still wasn’t ready for some of the passes that came his way in his first game playing with both.
“You feel me? The last game I played, I got a lot of corner opportunities,” Finney-Smith said after Lakers practice. “They’re already getting on me telling me to shoot the ball and I just wasn’t ready. He throws some of those passes without looking at you and I think I got hit with one. Bron’s the same, he throws passes for you and you just gotta be ready to shoot.
As Finney-Smith noted, with both James and Doncic you always have to be ready for the passes. However, while both possess exceptional vision and passing skills, they operate a bit differently.
“It’s different because one is moving super fast and the other one kind of moves at his own speed,” Finney-Smith noted. “It’s a little different. I will say, Luka can throw more late passes… He may throw the ball without looking at you, but Bron will tell you in a timeout that you’re gonna be open. So that’s a little different.”
When he gets going, James is still one of the fastest players in the league at getting up the court, while Doncic operates at a much more measured pace. It’s also interesting how Finney-Smith pointed out that LeBron will let him know before even taking the court to be ready, which shows his IQ as he knows exactly how a defense will react to whatever play the Lakers are running.
And while the Lakers’ role players will undoubtedly benefit greatly from the open looks Doncic will get them, Finney-Smith also pointed out how his presence will positively affect the Lakers’ other creators in LeBron and Austin Reaves.
“He’s gonna open up so many opportunities for everybody,” Finney-Smith added. “Especially Bron and AR because they’ve usually been getting teams’ best defenders and now the best defender is probably gonna be guarding Luka. So they’re gonna be able to make plays against the second or third best defenders on the court.”
What is clear is that all of the Lakers stand to benefit from the addition of Doncic and with two creators of that caliber on the court at the same time, every other team will have a tall task ahead of them in slowing down what could be a dynamic Lakers offense.
Lakers’ coach JJ Redick doesn’t expect Luka Doncic to have minutes restriction moving forward
Something else that will help the Lakers is Luka Doncic getting back to full health and the All-Star break has helped with that. Head coach JJ Redick noted that Doncic will be fine to play with no more minutes restrictions moving forward.
“He’ll be fine,” Redick said. “That extra five-six days of All-Star break was good for him. His minutes will be up tomorrow. And I don’t think that there’s going to be any sort of restrictions going forward.”
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