LeBron James-Luka Doncic lineups aren't working for the Los Angeles Lakers. Not even a little bit.
On Wednesday, Yahoo Sports' Tom Haberstroh provided the latest evidence of LeBron-Luka lineup failures -- the duo has one of the worst metrics among the league's star combinations when it comes to point differential per 100 possessions. Opponents are actually outscoring James and Doncic by 3.3 points in this regard.
There's an obvious solution to this problem staring the Lakers in the face, and why beat around the bush about it? LeBron would greatly improve the Lakers by coming off the bench.
LeBron James coming off the bench would make the Lakers better
Tuesday night's hard-fought victory for the Lakers over the visiting New Orleans Pelicans was another example of LeBron-Luka mediocrity. The Lakers were minus-5 with James and Doncic on the floor and plus-14 with all other lineups, per Haberstroh.
The evidence is screaming at Lakers head coach JJ Redick, who should start staggering Bron and Luka's minutes as much as possible, and far more than he's been doing. Bringing one of those guys off the bench would be a good move in this sense, and we know it's not going to be Luka.
Then again, it's difficult to imagine LeBron feeling anything close to okay about coming off the bench. From a branding standpoint, it probably wouldn't fly with LeBron, which is unfortunate, because from a basketball standpoint, this would make the Lakers a lot better.
The LeBron-Luka-Reaves trio isn't productive for the Lakers
The above stats are important in providing numerical evidence, but even without them, Lakers fans have been able to discern with their eyes alone that Luka has much better chemistry with Austin Reaves than Doncic does with LeBron.
Not only this, but the Lakers seem to operate better as an entire unit when Luka and Reaves are running the show as a star duo, as opposed to the Luka-LeBron pairing. There's more swagger, more fun, and more fluid basketball being played. The front office sees it, too, which is why Rob Pelinka has set the Lakers up for a Doncic-Reaves future and never extended James.
Not only would taking LeBron out of Luka-Reaves lineups make those lineups better, but Bron would instantly become the best bench player in the world if he were to make this unthinkable sacrifice that, of course, he'd never be willing to make.
Imagine LeBron exerting maximum usage as the point forward for LA's second unit, utterly destroying other teams' bench guys? This would give the Lakers much more balance across 48 minutes and, generally speaking, make LA a more formidable basketball team as the playoffs approach.
It's never going to happen. LeBron would never allow it, and Redick is probably too afraid to ask. But Sixth Man LeBron would absolutely take this Lakers team closer to the level of a contender.