Los Angeles Lakers: What David Fizdale Brings to the Team

Recently, the Los Angeles Lakers lost assistant coach Jason Kidd as he accepted the head coaching job for the Dallas Mavericks. However, the Lakers did not take long to find their replacement, adding David Fizdale to the coaching staff.

Fizdale is another coaching hire that the front office knocked out of the park. Just like Kidd, Fizdale is overqualified to be an assistant coach and having him on the sideline will be like having another head coach.

However, this also means that he may not be with the Lakers for long before another team comes looking to give him a bigger role in their organization.

He spent one full season as the head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies and one full season as the head coach of the

David Fizdale will contribute two major things as the assistant coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Player Development

Fizdale has a reputation for developing players. His track record speaks for itself.

One of these prime examples came when Fizdale was an assistant coach with the Miami Heat.

He spent countless hours working with Chris Bosh and developing him into what came to be known as the modern-day big.

Bringing Fizdale onto the coaching staff could make a huge difference on players like Talen Horton-Tucker and Kyle Kuzma.

Both are young players that have shown flashes of being great. If either or both of them are able to flourish under Fizdale’s guidance, it would either greatly increase their trade value or elevate them into essential players in the rotation.

Along with this, Fizdale already has experience coaching some of the players on the Lakers’ roster.

He coached and won two championships with LeBron James during his time in Miami and spent time coaching Marc Gasol during the end of his prime with the “Grit and Grind” Grizzlies.

In his first season as the head coach of the Grizzlies, Gasol went from shooting 0.1 threes per game to 3.6.

It is possible that Fizdale’s knack for blessing big men with an outside shot could be passed down to Anthony Davis.

Davis is already an adequate outside shooter. At times he can be deadly from the midrange. However, as evident in the playoffs, he is at times too comfortable settling for jumpers even when they are not falling.

If Fizdale is able to take his shooting to the next level, Davis would establish himself as one of the toughest players to guard in the entire league.

Defense

Ever since acquiring Anthony Davis, the Lakers have been one of the best defensive teams in the NBA.

Even when James and Davis were sidelined with injuries, the Lakers remained near the top of the league in defense due to the system that head coach Frank Vogel put in place.

However, Fizdale has a reputation himself of being a great defensive mind.

In the season before Fizdale landed the head coaching job with the Grizzlies, they ranked 19th in the NBA in defensive rating. In his first year on the job, he elevated them to 7th. After he was fired, they plummeted back down to 13th.

With Fizdale and Vogel working together, it is safe to assume the Lakers will once again be one of if not the best defensive team in the entire league.

This is something that they need. With their biggest weakness being a lack of shooting, offense will not always come easy for Los Angeles. As a result of this, they must be able to shut down opposing teams and force turnovers that can lead to easy baskets.

Signing David Fizdale was a great move for the Los Angeles Lakers and he will be great in developing individual players along with helping the team as a whole.