NBA Season 2025-26

[Phantom255x]

Interesting Lakers starting unit while LeBron is out

G: G Vincent
G: A Reaves
F: Luka
F: Hachimura
C: Ayton

I like Gabe Vincent getting the nod as the 5th starter. They have three combo guards. Defensive guards who need to hit open jump-shots. Gabe has done that the best during pre-season. He finished last season well after struggling prior to that. The others are Marcus Smart and Bronny. Smart has an uphill battle to prove he can still be a difference maker on a winning team (he hasn't been for 2yrs now).

Loss of DFS

Interesting to think about last year's squad and how Donney Finney Smith would have gotten the nod here. So they would have had a big wing defender who can cover 2 through 4. Maybe even some PGs. Also a more reliable shooter. Compare that to this season and LAL has no reliable wing defender that can step in if one of their wings are out injured (LeBron currently). All they can do this season is put in a small sized guard. A substantial downgrade.

Talent Level with LeBron

It is also interesting to look at the three players alongside Luka and A Reaves. How talented are they? Gabe Vincent is a bottom 5 starting PG. Hachimura is probably somewhere around the 20th best starting PF. Ayton also around the 20th best starting center. So just how talented is this team without LeBron? Is it a .500 team?

Do they lack wings?

Another interesting note is that A Reaves and Luka are the two wings. They are both negative defenders. LAL has no plus wing defender in their starting group without LeBron. They have a small guard defender in G Vincent and a big forward defender in Rui Hachimura.

They also lack wing defenders off their bench. Dalton Knecht is the next wing player up. An offense-only player. Then they have more versions of Rui Hachimura - big forwards who can play defense in Vanderbilt and Jake LaRavia.

So lots of big forwards. No quick wings. Small guards & big (slower) forwards (including Luka & LeBron).

I got LAL finishing as the 5 seed in the West but not having Lebron the first month is certainly going to hurt. I truthfully don't see much consistent, reliable scoring on that team behind Reaves and Doncic, and also even with Smart and others I'm still not sure their defense is going to hang against some of the elite teams out West who have superstar scoring options as well. DFS was an underrated big loss for them, and he went to a team that I think could be a direct opponent for them even in in the playoffs (Houston)

[Moranis]

I think you guys are underestimating Ayton a good bit.  He has been a pretty consistent 16/10 player for basically his entire career.  He isn't going to give you more than that, but he will give you that.  If your 3rd scorer is consistently giving you 16 ppg, you are doing ok, especially when your top scorer will be over 30. Also, Rui is a pretty consistent 13 ppg as well and Rui has really improved his 3-point shooting and was over 41% on over 4 attempts last year.  Offense will not be the issue for the Lakers, even without Lebron.  Defense is the concern as even with Lebron they don't have a lot of top end defenders.