LeBron James and Luka Doncic are now teammates on the Los Angeles Lakers. What was once considered a pipe dream by Lakers and basketball fans, pairing two of the smartest players in the world together, is now a reality in Los Angeles. And while the vast majority of people are excited to watch the offensive cohesion and passing on a James-Doncic-led offense, there are some detractors, as expected.
Some say that LeBron and Luka may not be the best basketball fit due to defensive concerns and the fact that both are ball-dominant players that do their best work as primary facilitators and decision-makers. Some of these concerns might be valid — especially on the defensive end — but one person who isn’t concerned is L.A. Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue.
Lue, who led a LeBron team to a championship in 2016, knows exactly what it means to have two ball-dominant stars on a team, and as he looks at the Lakers, he isn’t at all worried about Doncic and James working. He even laughed at the idea that people believe it won’t work.
“They’re not right. It’ll work,” Lue said. “When you have LeBron James, who has been the best player in the league for the last 15 years and when you have Luka who’s a top-three, top-five player in the league, they’ll figure out how to make it work.
“And LeBron can play with anybody. The way he plays, he’s smart enough to understand how to play with certain guys, how to play off of guys and where to pick and choose his spots. I don’t think it’s going to be a problem at all. And JJ (Redick) will do a good job of staggering those guys so they each have their own unit; kind of like how we did with Kyrie and LeBron for four quarters. They’ll close games together. They’ll figure it out. It’s not a tough problem to have, I’ll tell you that. They’ll make it work.”
Head coach JJ Redick is going to need some time to figure out the best ways to maximize both players within the rotation, but there’s no denying that the two superstars will be able to make it work. With shooting and lob threats sharing the floor with them, they should be able to run a wildly efficient offense where everything comes easy.
Luka Doncic debut still unclear
The next question for the Lakers is when they’ll have Luka Doncic on the floor for the first time. At his introductory press conference, general manager Rob Pelinka got ahead of it by saying there are still some 5-on-5 days and final steps that need to be completed, and that the team doesn’t have an official debut date set.
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