Why the Los Angeles Lakers should still be considered title favorites

The Los Angeles Lakers still have Anthony Davis and LeBron James

Anthony Davis has spent a minuscule 11 percent of his playing time at the center position throughout 2021, a much lower number than last regular season when he played 40 percent of his minutes as the Los Angeles Lakers center.

During the 2020 postseason, Frank Vogel increased Anthony Davis’s time at the center position up to 60 percent when he was on the court for the Lakers. He amassed the best +/- rating of any player (minimum two games played) at a dominant +8.8 points during playoffs.

When Anthony Davis works the middle, he creates an impossible mismatch for opposing squads. The top-seeded Utah Jazz feature All-Star Rudy Gobert at the 5, and against every other team in the league, he is a commanding force.

Still, the towering Frenchman can’t guard Anthony Davis’s blend of outside shooting touch and perimeter dribble-drive speed. Yet Anthony Davis has the height and bulk to manage Gobert on defense, so the Jazz center can’t make him pay on the other side. If Quin Snyder, the Jazz head coach, tries to switch a smaller, quicker player onto Davis, he’ll bury him from the post.

The number two seeded Suns will have the same problem with starting center DeAndre Ayton. There’s no way the young 5 can stay in front of Davis, and he’ll struggle to produce points against him on offense.

Look at every western conference playoff squad, and you’ll see that when Anthony Davis plays the center position, he is a mismatch for all of them. We haven’t even mentioned the Lakers’ best player, LeBron James.

LBJ has spent almost no time at the power forward spot this regular season, but he too is a matchup nightmare when he shifts up a position. LeBron James, at age 36, is still too quick and strong for defending 4’s to handle on the perimeter, and if opposing squads are foolish enough to send help, he’ll pick them apart with his pinpoint passing.

We all know that LBJ and AD have missed a sizeable chunk of the season, and neither man has seen much action playing up a position this year. All of which means the Lakers superstar duo is well-rested, and the rest of the league has little to no recent game film on the Purple and Gold’s death squad of Dennis Schroder, Alex Caruso, Kyle Kuzma, LeBron James, and Anthony Davis.

If the Los Angeles  Lakers enter the postseason healthy, they’re still the favorites to win another championship.