2023-24 Training Camp Preview: The Lakers on Offense

With training camp on the horizon, the Lakers are looking to build on a successful 2022-23 season that saw them make a run to the Conference Finals by taking the next step forward as a contender for the championship. And after an offseason that offered both continuity and brought reinforcements to the core of their roster, the team is well positioned to do just that.

In parts one and two of our 2023-24 training camp preview, we looked at the guards and wings, as well as the forwards and bigs as positional groups. In part three we dive into the Lakers on the offensive end of the floor.

KEY NUMBERS113.9: The Lakers offensive rating for the entirety of the season, good for 20th overall. This number was buoyed by the team’s performance post trade deadline, where their 115.6 rating helped carry them towards the playoffs. Once in the post season, the team’s offense dipped to 112.7, which ranked 8th out of the 16 playoff teams.

101.92: The number of possessions the Lakers averaged per game during the regular season, the fourth fastest pace in the league. Even post trade deadline, the Lakers continued to play at an accelerated speed (101.02), focusing on getting up and down the floor offensively, playing in transition as often as possible to hunt good shots at the rim.

34.6%: The percentage of threes the Lakers made during the regular season, ranking 25th in the league. This number — and overall ranking — however, doesn’t quite tell the entire story of the Lakers shooting for the season. In starting the season 2-10, the Lakers percentage from behind the arc was 30.0% through those games. After that, they shot 35.4% for the season, including 36.2 post trade deadline — with the latter ranking 16th in the NBA over that stretch.

STRENGTHSFrom an individual perspective, there are few teams who boast the offensive talent the Lakers possess. And that starts with LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

The Lakers’ star duo were one of only four sets of teammates — Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, and Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown — to average at least 25 points per game last season and one of only two (joining Tatum and Brown) who were teammates for the entire season. With two players as talented as James and Davis, defenses will continue to have difficulty covering the entirety of the court due to the need to send extra defensive resources in their directions.

The individual games of both James and Davis are well known, but it bears repeating that both remain elite finishing at the basket and continue to show an ability to get to those types of shots in a variety of ways. Be it as dive-men in the pick-and-roll, out of direct post ups, creating their own shots out of isolation, or running the floor in transition, both put immense pressure on the rim, and it’s that pressure that serves as a foundational aspect of their individual games and of the team’s overall offensive approach.

Anthony Davis – Go Dominate

Beyond James and Davis, Austin Reaves took a major step forward in his sophomore season, especially after the trade deadline where he got more opportunities as a ball handler and, ultimately, became a full-time starter. In Reaves’ final 15 games of the regular season (10 starts), he averaged 19.0 points and 5.7 assists on 57.9/43.6/85.3 shooting splits while attempting 7.3 free throws a game. He then carried this success over to the postseason where, though his efficiency dipped some, he was still able to average 16.5 points and 4.6 assists against top defensive competition and in the higher stakes of the playoffs.

Coming off a strong summer showing with Team USA in the FIBA World Cup, Reaves looks poised to continue as a strong secondary creator who can expand his usage and take on more responsibility on any given possession (or extended stretches during games) to offer the Lakers even more diversity as a perimeter-based shot creator and scorer who complements LeBron and AD perfectly.

At the team level, the Lakers’ strengths are rooted in their transition offense and ability to generate baskets against defenses that are not yet set up. Last season, 18.4% of the Lakers offensive possessions were in transition, the 6th highest rate in the league. The Lakers also ranked 4th in FG% in transition, 4th in free throw rate from those transition chances, and 5th in the frequency they scored either via a basket or free throws.

GROWTH OPPORTUNITIESWhile the Lakers can continue to hunt transition chances, even a slight uptick in those types of possessions still means upwards of 80% of the game is contested in the halfcourt, and they can seek out opportunities to improve their success rate when the game slows down. Even with James and Davis as primary options, good perimeter shot creation from their guards and wings, and a dynamic pick-and-roll attack, the Lakers ranked 15th in points per possession in the halfcourt last season.

This season, the Lakers have a good opportunity to improve on that number due to a number of factors. First, in the back court, a full season of both Reaves and D’Angelo Russell sharing ball handling duties and offensive initiation should give the Lakers more balance due to their shooting and floor spacing. Teams attempting to load up and wall off the paint will be challenged more often by those players’ shot making, as well as their feel as passers and shot creators for teammates against a rotating defense.

Game 6 – D’Angelo Russell Game Highlights 04-28-23

Beyond those two, the additions of Gabe Vincent, Taurean Prince, and Christian Wood offer the Lakers additional shooting threats from multiple positions, allowing Coach Ham more opportunities to fill out lineups with the types of shooters who can make defenses pay for clogging the paint in hopes of protecting the rim. Wood and Prince, in particular, offer shooting from the front court, which has potential to draw bigger defenders away from the basket, offer additional variety in the team’s pick-and-roll sets, and help facilitate driving and slashing lanes for scoring opportunities at the rim.

In general, the projected uptick in shooting the Lakers come into the season with, not only from the new additions but with the potential growth of Max Christie and Rui Hachimura (who is coming off a strong playoffs from the beyond the arc), can open up opportunities all over the floor for the team offensively through wider driving gaps, longer defensive rotations, or more difficult choices around when to help and how to position it.

These sorts of incremental shifts in how the defense reacts have the potential to lead to greater offensive efficiency in the halfcourt overall in the form of more open jump shots, higher quality drives and finishes in the paint, and, in general, the types of cleaner shot attempts that all add up to benefit the offensive production.

There are no guarantees that these shifts happen or that the team can even capitalize on them if they do. But, the Lakers are well positioned to take positive steps forward offensively and the uptick and jump shooting talent can be a big driver of that.

SUMMARYOver the past several seasons, particularly in the run to the 2020 championship and in the push towards and into the playoffs last season, the Lakers have been at their best when they have been elite on defense. And while the team has, in their biggest moments, had the ability to be a topflight offense that is carried by the immense talent and gravitational pull of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the group’s fortunes worked in tandem with their defensive success more than anything else.

While that may end up being true this upcoming season as well, the baseline level this group can play to and the strides they can potentially make offensively are meaningful enough that this will no longer have to be true for the team to reach its ultimate goal of winning a championship. This roster projects to be the most talented and diversified offensive group since LeBron joined the organization five years ago.

The collective level of shot creation and tough shot making, passing, athleticism, outside shooting, and playmaking is as high as LeBron and AD have had during their time as teammates, and the number of players who can take on a primary scoring role for stretches of a game or even a stretch of games can insulate those same superstars from carrying the full brunt of the team’s offensive success on their shoulders every night.

That said, the success of the group on offense is not a given, and it will take that same collective to embrace their roles and come together as a group to maximize their talent and optimize the group’s performance. If they can do that, the sky is the limit.