How the Lakers can be a playoffs contender with moneyball

[dreamwarrior]

So we didn't get Lebron, Melo, or Love. That's ok because we got Lin and Boozer. NBA moneyball places importance on 10 different player positions based on advanced statistics. Here is how the Lakers roster fit into those 10 positions.

Inside-outside Scorer - Jeremy Lin and Carlos Boozer, Xavier Henry off the bench
Jeremy Lin loves to either drive to the basket or shoot a 3. He's a very good shooter from all over the floor but he is at his best when making layups or shooting long jumpers or 3's. He fits this position to a T.
Carlos Boozer can score from anywhere on the floor but is at his best from 0-3ft and beyond 16ft. Who knew he was so versatile.
Xavier Henry makes a decent amount from long range and is a decent paint scorer.
Ryan Kelly from 0-3ft made .649% and from 3pt made .338. He drives a decent amount but needs to up it more in order to be effective for the team.
Nick Young doesn't take enough shots inside. He prefers jumpers and 3pts beyond 16ft.
Kobe is more of a mid-long range shooter, but he is most effective from within 10ft of the basket. Unfortunately with his injury we'll likely see him be even more of a jump shooter than before.

Midrange Big Man - Jordan Hill
Jordan Hill hits nearly .450% from mid-range and takes over half of his shots from there. That's exactly what we want him to do this coming year except more of it.
Sacre hits about .400 from mid range.
Carlos Boozer shoots half of his shots from 10ft and beyond, hitting .375% of these jumpers which is not really that great.
Ed Davis hits about the same percentage from mid range as Boozer

2Way All Star - Kobe Bryant and Jordan Hill
Kobe Bryant is both great offensively and defensively. Hopefully his defense doesn't get worse after the injuries. He's still the only Laker who can excel at both ends of the floor.
Jordan Hill is the next closest thing except he's not a prolific scorer. He had games last year where he put up 20pts but it was inconsistent. If he can score more it would truly take the pressure off of Bryant.

Jumper Point Guard - Jordan Clarkson and Steve Nash
Jordan Clarkson had a great pull-up jumper in Summer league. Perhaps he might be the Jumper point guard that the Lakers need.
Steve Nash hits over .400% of his jumpers which is ok.

Defensive Point Guard - Jeremy Lin
Jeremy Lin's defensive Rating is 109 which is not great but the best the Lakers have
Jordan Clarkson's DRtg was just a bad better than Lins.
Steve Nash is about as bad as you can get for a defensive PG.

Scoring Rebounder - Carlos Boozer and Julius Randle
Carlos Boozer fits this mold pretty well as he's a scorer putting up 17.5 and 10.6 boards per 36 minutes. I want him to get more offensive rebounds though as he only gets 2.3 per 36.
Julius Randle is an inside scorer and solid rebounder. Again size will be a concern. He was a good offensive rebounder in college and hopefully it continues in the NBA.

Paint Defense - Jordan Hill, Carlos Boozer, Ed Davis off the bench
Jordan Hill is the best guy they have on defense in the paint. He's played the C position before and with all of the PFs the Lakers have now I expect him to play even more C next year.
Carlos Boozer has a DRtg of 98 from last year, which is incredible given his reputation for being bad on offense. He may not get any blocks but hey, people don't score on this guy so that's something to ponder when picking your starter, though Hill is the better player here just because opponents will be more afraid of going into the paint against him vs Boozer.
Ed Davis is also a decent paint defender
Julius Randle was a great college defender so he's going to be some good help in the paint, though we'll see if size is going to matter with him.

3-point Point Guard - Jeremy Lin and Jordan Clarkson
Jeremy Lin loves shooting the 3 and he makes a decent amount at a .358% clip.
Jordan Clarkson hit .400 of his 3's in Summer league.

3-point Specialist - Nick Young and Wesley Johnson
Nick Young hit .386% beyond 3pt and also took .400 of his shots from there. He is the prototypical 3pt specialist on this team.
Wesley Johnson hit .369% from 3 last year and took over 40% of his shots from there.
Ryan Kelly shoots .400 of hits shots from 3pt for .338%
Jeremy Lin is a .358% 3pt shooter, but he's more of a pull-up 3pt shooter, not a spot-up 3pt specialist.
Xavier Henry like Lin is not the greatest 3pt threat and takes too many shots from there.
Kobe Bryant is not a good enough 3pt shooter to take so many of his shots from beyond the arc. He needs to either hit more 3pt shots or take them less often so that the more effective 3pt shooters can take those shots.

Basic PG - Steve Nash
Steve Nash at this age doesn't do anything well, which means he's the perfect basic PG.

So you see, both Jeremy Lin and Carlos Boozer are able to basically fill 3 positions in NBA moneyball. Jordan Hill is the only returning Laker who can also play 3 positions. For this coming season, if Jeremy Lin can play slightly better defense the Lakers will have the perfect moneyball NBA team. Even better if they can sign a defensive ball handler.

Playoffs here we come!

[Magic731]

Championship cruise

[Im Still Ballin]

Lakers fans.

LMAO

[no pun intended]

24 million for Kobe isn't exactly moneyball.

[Milbuck]

Lin/Clarkson/Nash
Kobe/Xavier
Young/Johnson
Boozer/Randle
Hill/Davis

That's okay..with good coaching and good health, they could win 40-45 games, make the playoffs in the East. This year though the West could be even tougher than last year, you gotta push damn near 50 wins to make the playoffs. They've got decent offensive weapons, if Kobe comes back strong...but the defense is just utter shit.

[Smoke117]

Wait what...Kobe Bryant is a two way player and great defensively?

[ImKobe]

Lin/Clarkson/Nash
Kobe/Xavier
Young/Johnson
Boozer/Randle
Hill/Davis

That's okay..with good coaching and good health, they could win 40-45 games, make the playoffs in the East. This year though the West could be even tougher than last year, you gotta push damn near 50 wins to make the playoffs. They've got decent offensive weapons, if Kobe comes back strong...but the defense is just utter shit.

Defense is not about individual ability, it's how they rotate as a TEAM. It's about chemistry and everyone looking out for one another.

Hill is a good defensive big, Lin is above-average on D, Young showed improvement on the defensive end last season. Kobe is still very good at defending the ballhandler.

IT depends on the pace they play at. If they manage to force a slower pace on teams like OKC,LAC & HOU, they could easily finish top 5 in the West.

For the defense to be at least respectable, turnovers have to be limited. The team will suck at defending in transition, but half court D should be fine.

[ralph_i_el]

Jordan Hill and Kobe a two way all stars gotcha.

IF that was true they might make the playoffs...but its not

This team is soft on D in so many positions. Teams will exploit matchup problems in every single game. Just think about the top 10 teams out west and every one of those teams has someone the Lakers can't hope to contain.

[AirFederer]

Book the Lakers Championschip cruise

[Dr.J4ever]

Book the Lakers Championschip cruise

[Im Still Ballin]

Book the Lakers Championschip cruise

LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[BoutPractice]

I do think they could surprise next year... Wouldn't completely count them out for an 8th seed, or at least enough wins that they would have easily made the playoffs in the East.

Lots of undervalued players with decent fit.

The official line is that Jeremy Lin sucks, Kobe and Boozer are done and can no longer contribute anything to a basketball game, and Jordan Hill is worth little more than an energy big off the bench. These quite extreme opinions that have somehow become consensual will probably turn out to be false in practice.

[GimmeThat]

you should do a moneyball analysis on other teams THAN look at what you wrote for the Lakers.

you'll biggum yourself

[HurricaneKid]

Holy ****.

Is Jeremy Lin the best defender on that team?!??



As Jim Mora said:

"Playoffs?"

"Playoffs?!??"

[Jameerthefear]

Book the Lakers Championschip cruise