What should the identity of the Lakers be?
The Lakers will likely have a new, or at least modified, identity. But what should that identity be under JJ Redick?
We’re back with another edition of the mailbag, this time with discussions on the team’s identity, D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves as a backcourt and basketball movies.
Let’s dive in.
With a new head coach coming in, and one that has literally never coached above youth league before, you have basically no idea what the identity is going to be. You can make some guesses, but at the end of the day, it’s going to be nothing more than that.
If I had my choice, I would make the identity of the team on the defensive end, which is what I would also argue was the identity of the team in 2020.
Now, can this roster have a defensive identity? Ehhhh. A lot of that depends on the availability of Jarred Vanderbilt, which appears to be up in the air. It also requires Gabe Vincent to have a bounceback season, too.
Even then, the best defensive version of the Lakers likely involves AD playing next to a center. Does it feel like either Jaxson Hayes or Christian Wood could be that guy? I don’t have a great amount of faith.
But it also seems to be given that this will not be the roster at the end of the season. Could they make some moves to make it a roster more suitable to a defensive identity? Sure.
The reality is, though, that argument could be made for whatever identity this team takes. I think a lot of the early part of the season is going to be figuring out the identity of this team and molding the roster as a result.
I think I would push back on them being the worst defensive starting backcourt, but that would be semantics as the point remains that they are a below-average one at best. Honestly, of all the things I’m surprised by, that the Lakers are going into the season with a Reaves-Russell backcourt is chief among them.
Jalen Suggs is an interesting name and one the Lakers reportedly had interest in previously. I think that could be an overcorrection as, for two of the three years in his career, Suggs was a woefully inefficient player. He did improve quite a bit on the offensive end last year, but I’m not willing to fully bet on that yet.
But the Magic could be an interesting trade partner this season. Come December when we have a larger sample size on a number of things, I wouldn’t be surprised if Orlando is a team that the Lakers are rumored to have discussions with. Between Suggs, Wendell Carter and a host of role players, the two sides could potentially work out some deal.
Ranking 10 basketball movies would be tough, so let’s trim it down to a top five. In order:
- Hoosiers
- Coach Carter
- White Men Can’t Jump
- He Got Game
- Space Jam
I considered adding Love & Basketball for the LA connections to pander to most of the audience reading this, but I opted for Space Jam instead. Considering when it came out, I don’t think there’s any movie on this list I watched more than Space Jam.
Also, I saw the comments in the questions thread and the amount of people who haven’t watched Hoosiers is unacceptable. It is a requirement for anyone living in Indiana to watch the movie within your first six months, in fact.
Educate yourselves and watch a classic this week.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.