Hello everyone, I'm new to watching NBA Basketball (Started watching from last season's playoffs). First post/comment on the sub, please be nice.
I have been watching some of the games for a while now, and I have watched all of the last few games from the Lakers because I wanted to see LeBron play. I am genuinely baffled by the Lakers offense. It's basically dribble to the perimeter, AD sets a screen, drive to the rim, kick to the perimeter, and then brick a three. The Lakers keep doing this again, and again, and again, and again, with no major adjustments or changes. LeBron seems to be the only player who consistently drives to the rim and finishes, but he still does a lot of kicking to the perimeter. If they can't kick the ball to the perimeter, they more often than not get fouled attempting to make a shot and then get sent to the free throw line. The other variant is giving AD the ball, he tries to score, or kicks it to the perimeter again. There are barely any cuts, drives with passes to another guy cutting into the paint, no staggered screens, in summary there's barely any off-ball movement outside of a screen to the ball handler. Just 5 dudes chilling around the perimeter. It's incredibly fun watching teams like the Nuggets, Kings, Thunder, and the Warriors run an offense. Meanwhile, it's like Groundhog Day with the Lakers, especially with this season.
I feel like in the last playoffs, the Lakers had some variety thanks to Schroeder, but with him gone I'm curious to know why the Lakers refuse to have any variety. Was Schroeder that good of a floor general that he could set up an offense like LeBron? Is Darvin Ham solely to blame? Why are the Lakers not utilizing Rui Hachimura more? Why is Darvin Ham not adjusting? I'm puzzled because four games in, they've barely made any changes to the existing formula. Is this sustainable over an entire season?