Los Angeles Lakers offensive movement integral to success

Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton’s vision of ball and player movement took huge leaps towards fruition this past offseason via free agency and is the key to a successful 2018-2019 season for the team. 

The Los Angeles Lakers game plan this offseason will help further modernize their offense. The days of isolation dominate offenses are mostly long gone. While exploited in individual matchups, sharing the wealth is the name of the game in 2018.

Ball movement has been a staple of the successful Gregg Popovich teams, and the new age Golden State Warriors have hopped on that trend (Makes sense since Warriors Coach Steve Kerr spent time under Popovich as an assistant coach).

So when Luke Walton agreed to join the Los Angeles Lakers after being an assistant for Kerr, expectations were that the 26th head coach in Lakers history would attempt to bring along a movement centered offense.

The season before Luke took over as the coach, the percentage of field goals that came from an assist was 51.3%. For the 2017-2018 season, the Lakers increased that number to 58.4 %. These numbers can either mean that the Lakers are better at making shots now than two years ago, or the offense Luke installed generates more opportunities off the pass.

While previous head coach Byron Scott did have a lot more to deal with than just a lackluster roster (Twilight Kobe Bryant, Jim Buss and a lack of financial flexibility to name a few), the changes Luke brought with him are beginning to show.

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A fantastic indication of where the Lakers plan vision lies is to look at the roster signings that the front office made over the most recent NBA free agency.

Not only did the Lakers bring in Lebron James, but also brought in Rajon Rondo and Lance Stephenson who are both excellent passers (Rondo more so than Stephenson). These three, along with Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram, make it so the Lakers always have one or two great passers on the court at all times.

Another reason for the Lakers to continue feeding into the ball movement environment Luke has been cultivating is the fact that we are very thin on elite 3-point shooters.

The Cleveland Cavaliers were able to make it to the NBA Finals last season riding LeBron’s wave of greatness. That is because he always had three or four guys on the floor with him at all times who were genuine threats from downtown.

Unless the current Lakers roster develops a 3-point shooter or two from the talent on hand (Josh Hart or Lonzo Ball would be lovely), we just do not have the firepower from deep that lets us get away with LeBron winning games only on his greatness, that might work in the Eastern Conference but not the West.

Passing the ball around the perimeter just for the sake of passing does little for an offense over the length of a whole game. The movement needs to be used as a way to keep defenses on their toes.

Ball movement is most effective when the defense believes that what you are doing can exploit them. For example, five Lakers passing the ball around the 3-point line to each other does not keep the defense honest, even though the ball is technically moving.

What the Lakers need to do is make sure that the ball and players are moving with a purpose in mind. Achieving this can be done by putting LeBron at the high post and having the other four Lakers cutting to the hoop off screens set by each other. With LeBron being an exceptional passer, and Laker players cutting to the basket, defenses will need to be on their toes to avoid the Lakers having a layup party.

There will be games where the Lakers are struggling to get anything going on offense, and it might come down to LeBron willing this team to victory by completely taking over, but this is also okay. With 82 games over eight months, days will come along when cutting and moving just is not getting it done, and the Lakers will need their individual talents to flourish.

The goal is to establish a culture on player movement and ball movement. This is to ensure that even if LeBron scored 10 points in a row off isolation plays, the defense has it in the back of their minds that’s not who the Lakers are.

Movement is something that Coach Walton has been establishing within the organization for the past two years. It will continue being a battle as the Lakers try to break bad habits of the last five years.

However, with the Lakers on the rise, and new leadership in the front office leading the charge, it will only be a matter of time before Luke’s team first vision becomes a reality.