Los Angeles Lakers regular season grades: Backcourt players
Josh Hart: C
Defensive Real Plus-Minus: 1.74 (3rd)
Field-Goal Percentage Differential: -1.2 (8th)
Defensive Rating: 104.1 (3rd)
Offensive Rating: 104.4 (9th)
On/Off Offensive Differential: -2.7 (8th)
Traditional Stats: 8 PPG, 4 RPG, 1 APG, .407 FG%
Josh Hart was great on defense during the season. His defensive real-plus minus rating of 1.74 was 3rd among all shooting guards in the NBA and his defensive rating was 24th out of 170 guards in the NBA (minimum 15 minutes per game).
Josh Hart was the Lakers best perimeter defender, barely edging out Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, and Alex Caruso for the honor. He always plays with tremendous effort and he takes pride in shutting down his assignment on defense.
He was able to play Luke Walton’s switch-everything defense to perfection because he’s capable of guarding positions 1-5 on the court. There were many times throughout the season that he’d switch onto bigs in the post and get a stop, then the next play he’d shut down the opposing shooting guard on the perimeter.
He could become an All-NBA defender in the future, he’s that’s good.
On offense, it was another story. He was the Lakers worst perimeter offensive player during the 2018-2019 season. He had a 40% overall field goal percentage and he only shot 33% from deep.
His 3-point percentage was especially damaging to the Lakers offense because over 90% of his 3-pointers came off a pass and many of his shots from distance were either wide open (6+ feet from a defender) where he shot 31% or open (4-6 feet from a defender) where he shot 34%.
It’s not like he was shooting step-back 3-pointers off the dribble, like Stephen Curry or Damian Lillard, he was taking wide open catch-and-shoot shots from distance and just missing them.
There were many times throughout the season the Lakers ran very good offensive sets which ended in Josh Hart getting a wide open look from downtown, only to see him clank his shot off the rim. It was demoralizing for the Lakers to play perfect offense only to come up empty.
Making matters worse, Josh Hart had an excellent field goal percentage of 66% when he took shots from 0-3 feet, but he only took about a quarter of his total shots from that range. Instead of driving to the rim when his outside shot wasn’t falling he just kept shooting from distance and bricking over and over again.
Josh Hart was the Lakers best perimeter defender and their worst non-big offensive player, so he gets an A for defense and an F for offense, which equals out to a C grade. Had he not been injured, this grade probably would have been higher.