Secondary playmaking
LeBron James for the 1st time in his entire career led the National Basketball Association in assists.
At the age of 35! That’s insane!
LeBron has shown the basketball world that he is capable of doing virtually anything he sets his mind to and he can be the very best in the world at it if he so chooses.
But let’s not let LeBron’s heroics fool you.
The second LeBron went off the floor, the Lakers went from an excellent offense to a borderline terrible offense.
When LeBron sits, the purple and gold are stagnant because they do not have a player capable of making the right passes and quarterbacking the offense.
This remedied itself in the playoffs when “Playoff Rondo” came to play, elevating the purple and gold to 2nd in the league in assists in the postseason, but during the regular season, the Los Angeles Lakers were 10th in assists per game with 25.4.
Without LeBron’s 10.2 assists a game, the purple and gold would have been in serious trouble to move the ball around and in games in which LeBron willed the Lakers to win, the Lakers would have more than likely lost.
Once again, look at your strengths, look at your weaknesses, perfect your strengths, improve upon your weaknesses.
While being top 10 in the league in assists is good, the Lakers don’t want to be good, they want to be great.
A lot can be said about Russell Westbrook and his shooting tendencies and ball dominance but one thing Russell Westbrook can do at an elite level is passing the ball.
Westbrook has led the league twice in assists per game in 2017-18 and 2018-19 and has been top 5 in numerous seasons.
You can say whatever you like about Westbrook but at the end of the day, he is an elite playmaker.
What’s better than having one elite playmaker (LeBron James)? Having two and Russell Westbrook is an elite playmaker.
During the early parts of the season, LeBron James will be coasting and resting. That could spell disaster for the purple and gold if they don’t have a playmaker who can take the reigns and make the Lakers tick while LeBron is resting.
Adding Russell Westbrook to the mix completely negates that worry.
You add one of the elite playmakers in the league and you get to have him come in as a secondary playmaker.
What a luxury.