Los Angeles Lakers: What to learn from remaining playoff teams

What the Los Angeles Lakers can learn from the Atlanta Hawks:

The Los Angeles Lakers can learn a lot from this year’s Atlanta Hawks team.

Atlanta is truly putting on a clinic of how lethal team basketball can be.

After injuries to 2019 first-round picks De’Andre Hunter and Cam Reddish, the Hawks have shown the importance of being able to carry on and have every man on the roster step up when it matters.

It should also be noted, that even more so than any other remaining team, in my opinion, the Atlanta Hawks locker room looks to be incredibly close, with all of the players buying into the team, understanding and thriving in their individual roles, and truly committing to the brotherhood that playing on a sports team, professionally specifically, can provide.

Atlanta has shown the ability to win games when their best player, Trae Young, plays poorly, which cannot be said for the current Lakers roster unless Anthony Davis plays out of his mind.

The Hawks, just like the Suns and Bucks, showcase the importance of that 3rd, and even 4th and 5th shot-makers, especially from deep.

ATL has a plethora of shooters in Kevin Huerter, Bogdan Bogdanovič (when healthy), and even Tony Snell (he shot .569 from three in the regular season, and became the first player in NBA history to have a 50-50-100 season). In addition, Danilo Gallinari and Lou Williams off the bench are always a threat from behind the line, contested or not.

Unless someone gets hot, or at times when Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is that guy, the Lakers supporting squad does not have that firepower from deep that is so key in today’s NBA, especially down the stretch in big playoff games.

Throughout the season and in these playoffs, John Collins has proved the importance of a power forward doing their job by aggressively attacking the boards. Anthony Davis, at times, struggles with this.

Side note:

While I am personally a fan of Drummond, his time with LA has been inconsistent, which shows that the Lakers could benefit from a truly dominant center. However, there is already someone on the roster who can be that guy, Anthony Davis.

AD can be an absolute menace when he wants to, which needs to be more often. He is a dominant force inside who is a threat from outside, not the other way around, and he needs to play like that to maximize his contribution to the team.

Anyways, AD primarily plays the power forward position, and even though I believe the Lakers should play him at center more (against his wishes), that is a whole other conversation. Hence, he will be discussed and compared as a PF.

In this year’s playoffs, John Collins has averaged 13.1 rebounds per 48 minutes, while AD only averaged 11. They averaged 8.7 and 6.6, respectfully for RPG, but the per 48 minutes accounts for Davis’ missed time due to injuries. The two players were within a rebound of each other for RPG during the regular season with an average of around 7.

While credit should not be taken away from John Collins, there is absolutely no reason that Anthony Davis should not be rebounding more than him. I would go as far as to say that AD not averaging double-digit rebounds as he did for New Orleans is inexcusable. He is too big, strong, and commanding around the rim when he wants to be putting up these numbers.

During some games, watching Davis’ lack of box-out efforts and seeing his rebound numbers are shameful. I think most LA Lakers fans can agree he needs to be more aggressive at getting into the paint and attacking the rim.

This criticism comes from a place of respect because basketball fans know how unstoppable AD can be, and we would like to see it all of the time, not just some of the time, as that is what the truly great players do.

Lastly, the pace and offensive style of the Atlanta Hawks is something that Frank Vogel and his staff could look to for inspiration going into next season.

Trae Young is arguably a top 5 or 6 point guard in the league, so the offensive threat that he brings while driving, passing, or shooting from long-range has opened up an at times, lethal and unstoppable offense with the 5th best pace in the playoffs, compared to the Lakers at 12th (98.18 and 95.08 possessions per game, respectively).

In addition, their pick and roll offense has had the highest frequency in the playoffs at 29%, with the Phoenix Suns not terribly far behind them at 5th with a 23.2% FREQ. The Lakers were fourth to last in the playoffs at 15.8%.

With a dynamic point guard pickup in the offseason, the Lakers would have the option to implement a higher pace as well as incorporating more PNR into their offense, which seems to be resurfacing in terms of popularity and success in today’s league.

The Atlanta Hawks look to grab a victory in a must-win game 4 against the Bucks after a beyond unfortunate injury to superstar Trae Young.