2. J.R. Smith has to prove to the Los Angeles Lakers that he is still a viable wing defender
The other part of the three and D equation has not been good for J.R. Smith in recent years. During his prime and his early days in Cleveland, Smith was a very valuable on-ball defender and was huge in a team stopping the other team’s wing scorers.
He was very similar to what Danny Green is to the Lakers now. Smith is not that guy any longer and with so much time removed from the court, there are no guarantees that he will even be good on the defensive end. In fact, even when we last saw him, he was not great defensively.
In his last two full seasons, Smith posted the worst defensive win share totals since his first two seasons in the league. His combined 1.6 defensive win shares over those two years were the second-fewest among NBA players with 3,400 minutes played in that stretch.
Based on his layoff and that fact alone, it is much more likely that Smith is not going to be a great defender for the team. However, if he goes out and proves that he is a viable wing defender in those eight games then that is going to impact his role tremendously.
The Lakers are a great defensive team but the one area where I worry is how they will defend a team with more than one great wing scorer. That is going to force LeBron James in more critical defensive situations, which is not a terrible thing but is not preferred.
If Smith shows that he can play great defense, even if he does not score, he suddenly becomes someone who could guard Robert Covington, Brandon Ingram, or even Paul George, if needed.
It still won’t translate into a lot of minutes, but it could put Smith in some key spots in the game where the Lakers need to get a few defensive stops and gain momentum.