The Lakers Are Better Without LeBron James

Right, we got to talk about the Lakers, and we have to talk about the dynamic within the Lakers that includes one LeBron James.

Mention that Knicks game.

The Lakers looked great in that game, and they looked great winning without LeBron James, which has sparked the conversation, again of are the Lakers better without LeBron James.

So I'm gonna go first on this one because I think this is like, An insane debate because I don't think it is a debate.

Of course, the Lakers are better without LeBron James.

And, and this, I'll just couch this by saying this is not saying LeBron's bad or not saying LeBron's washed or not saying LeBron can't play NBA basketball beyond that season because that is equally ridiculous.

He is equally capable of playing at 41, almost 42 years old at all-star, all NBA level.

But if you're gonna make the argument that the Lakers are Not better without LeBron James.

You are not looking at the numbers.

You are not looking at the numbers.

The numbers, we are more than 3 quarters of the way through the season and the numbers speak for themselves.

I want to read some of these off to you, Rachel.

Lakers are 13-7 statistically without LeBron in the lineup.

That's pretty damn good.

They are better when it's Austin Reeves and Luka Dacic playing together.

Together without LeBron.

They're 9-2 with those two guys.

In those games, they average 118.

6 points per game, and they allow 111.

5.

So a pretty big net rating there, uh, for those teams.

Their offensive rating with those two guys, that 9 and 2 stretch, 117.

9.

Defensive rating, 111.

6.

Um, Contrast that with the three-man lineup, which of LeBron, Luca, and Austin Reeves, which is freaking terrible.

It is so bad.

The three-man lineup of Luca, Reeves, and LeBron has a net rating of -1.1. With a 109.

4 offensive rating, which would be the second worst offensive rating in the NBA only behind Indiana, which is not trying to win games.

I have that number on my sheet as well because that's the number everyone's like, oh, it's defensively, and it is to a degree, but that number, it is on their own, on their own team by offensive rating, it's the Lakers' fourth worst three-man combo of a minimum of 250 minutes.

And each of their 6, each of their 6 worst 3-man combos feature one LeBron James.

All these numbers are telling you that it doesn't work.

It doesn't work with LeBron in LA.

And I said on a different show last week that the Lakers were trying to build Dallas 2.0 in the future.

And people kind of like, what?

Dallas, what did Dallas do?

That's exactly what they're trying to.

They got to the finals.

That's exactly what they're trying to do.

And look, it's the game against the Knicks, it's a one game and it's an imperfect, um, example here.

But they go with Luke and Reeves and they've got Rui, not a great defensive player, but, you know, a versatile body.

Marcus Smart, not what he used to be, but still a defensive player.

And DeAndre Ayden, who played the best defense of his season in that game, was active, going for shots, rebounding, looked like, hey, Clint Capela, looked like he was trying to do some of that out there.

Like, it is.

If you are gonna sit there and say that the Lakers are better with LeBron in the lineup, you are simply.

Not looking at the relevant data.

Like , I, I know it doesn't always come down to data, but the numbers speak for themselves.

With Luca and Austin Reeves as a two-man combination with other players, they are really good.

With LeBron added to that mix with Luca and Austin Reeves, they're statistically really bad.

Fact , the Lakers are better playing without LeBron James.

Yeah, I mean, look, the offensive number is what stuck out to me so much because this is never gonna be the best defense in the world with those 3 guys.

On the court, but you have players who have, we have seen raise their defensive game in the playoffs.

They're like, great, I can't do this for 9 months, but I can play with force and energy for 2 or 3 months, and LeBron, I think, will be a better defensive player in the playoffs than he was for a chunk of the regular season.

We've seen Luca, of all people, raise his defense in the playoffs, and he played decent defense through that whole finals run.

Um, you know, he's never going to be Defensive Player of the Year, but we have seen that improve.

The offensive numbers not being right to me are the biggest red flag.

29th in the league with those 3 guys on the court out of 30.

I mean, that is, you know, the offense, when you look at it to the eye test, like they're just stagnant.

I'm not sure how much of it is because, you know, Luca absolutely modeled his game on LeBron's.

Watched YouTube videos, wanted to be LeBron, all of those things.

Maybe two of those on one court is not, you know, they both need the ball too much or any of that, but whatever it is, it is stagnant.

I think the reason people push back on what you're saying, even though you made the qualifier you did, they don't hear it, right?

The qualifier is LeBron is still a great player, and by the way, could absolutely be part of a championship team.

But what LeBron is not anymore is that immortal designation.

So, you know, I always say this, NBA is about fit.

The top 10% of the players, doesn't matter where they play, they can propel the team up.

The bottom 10% of the players, they're going to be crappy no matter what team they are.

But the 80% in the middle, it is about fit.

And LeBron used to be in that top 10%.

I think he's probably top 25% in the league still.

That's really good, but he has kind of faded out and oh my God, at 41, no slouch, of being in that top 10% of wherever he is, he changes.

It, it doesn't matter what the fit is .

He's now more mortal, and it depends what the fit is, and the fit with this team is not good .

And of course, the other rumored place for him to play next year is Cleveland, and I think the fit there would be better because of, you know, just sort of the makeup of that team.

Yeah, uh.

Might be other places too that the fit could work, yeah, but would he go there?

No, I mean, would he go to New York.

Maybe Timothy Chalamet is trying to get him there.

Yeah, I mean, if Timothy Chalamet, Timothy Chalamet is recruiting.

I don't know, recruiting.

I saw, I saw a photo of him and Tom Brady the other day.

Is he recruiting him to, you know, God knows where, Tampa, Orlando area?

It, it just reinforces the The obvious conclusion that you can make is that his time in LA is coming to an end because the Lakers are building this team around Luka Doncic.

The Lakers are committed to Austin Reeves, and they have data to back that up.

All right, I have a question for you though.

You like data.

JJ Reddick loves data.

He is an analytics guy.

Um, the data is what it is.

At the end of an important playoff game.

What are you doing?

You're putting all three of those guys out on the court?

Oh, this season, I think you ride it out.

You just, I mean.

What are you gonna do?

Put LeBron on the bench?

I don't the end of a game.

I don't know, but it's not.

You just, you just enumerated why having all three guys out there at critical moments is not their best chance to win.

So my question is, if you were JJ Reddick or a Lakers brass, I'm sure this would be a discussed decision.

Do you say, all right, we're not going to win the title this year anyway.

We don't want to be the people who bench LeBron at the end of the game.

So we're just gonna have not our best lineup out there for the end of games or at critical times in the game.

And, and by the way, I, I get that decision, and that's a respect that some players are owed.

And if anyone is, I think he is.

But it is not your best lineup.

You just read off all the stats, so it is a decision.

Like pretending that that's not a conversation is not looking at all those numbers you just read.

I think you gotta, if you're the Lakers, ride it out though.

I think that's fine.

I'm, I'm not saying that you don't.

I'm just saying that pretending that it's an automatic.

It's not giving them their best chance to win.

I agree.

Like, in a, in, in your scenario, like end of game situation, I mean, maybe it's Austin who sits.

I'm not saying it's LeBron, but I'm just saying that, but like end of game situation, you'd I'd sit them all in the last like, but a defensive possession, but like a defensive possession.

I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about for the last, you don't have a lot of guys that can, you know, I was gonna say for the last contentious, you know, whatever, 10 minutes of a playoff game or whatever it is, like, it's not their best lineup.

So again, I'm not saying you sit one of those guys, but I'm saying that if you don't, you are not putting your best foot forward, and that might be OK for this year, you know, wherever they end up this year for a 2nd round of the playoffs, that's fine.

Everybody knows the future is next year, um.

You know, what do you think the conversation with LeBron is this summer for the Lakers, because they went so far.

This was interesting.

I was at Rob Polinka's first press conference of the year and someone asked him, you know, already, would you extend LeBron James?

Why didn't you extend LeBron James?

And he said, My hope is that LeBron retires as a Laker, which was seen as sort of, my hope is LeBron retires this year.

I saw it, right?

Um.

David Benneman reported that the Lakers would welcome LeBron back.

I don't understand under what circumstances.

Yeah, but like the, the obvious follow up to that reporting is like at what price?

Like if LeBron wants to come back, but it's not just price, it's what I just talked about.

Well, I mean, look, would you take LeBron back if he's willing to be a role player on $10 million per year?

Yes, but of course he's not gonna do that.

He's not looking to do that at this stage just the money.

He'd have to be willing to do what I just talked about, right?

You're not on the court at the end of big games, exactly, which is what makes, I think, a return to the Lakers completely untenable.

Like, I think Rob Polinka and the Lakers made the right decision not extending him.

I know that put them in the crosshairs of some people doing that, but that was obviously the right call.

What did they say to him?

What I would say to him this summer is , LeBron, you've been a Force for us for nearly a decade.

Um, if you need our help facilitating a deal to the team that you want to go to, we will help.

We will contribute and sign and trade.

We'll work with you to do whatever we can do to make things work for LeBron.

They will try to do.

But other than that, I wouldn't do anything.

I'd be moving this whole thing forward.

I'd be, I'd be doing that, um, I'd be going my own way, my own separate ways with, with the Lakers.