Fantasy Basketball – How will LeBron's production change with the Lakers?



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10:49 AM AND

  • Andre Snellings ESPN

I do not know if you heard the news, but rumor has it that LeBron James accepted a four-year, 153.3 million dollars worth playing for the Los Angeles Lakers. The deal places the game's biggest superstar in the glamorous league franchise and resumes the Laker nation championship after missing the playoffs of the past five seasons.

But what does that mean for King James's fortune? And what about his new Lakers teammates? It is not yet certain that the Lakers have finished the process, but immediately after accepting conditions with LeBron, they announced new one-year contracts with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Lance Stephenson and JaVale McGee who could, theoretically, take the rest of

So, we can project the fantastic fortunes for the Lakers as they are now … and if anything changes this offseason, we'll be ready to change them if needed. But for the moment …

2018-19 Lakers plans a rotation

PG: Lonzo Ball

SG: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope [19659004] F: Brandon Ingram

F: LeBron James

C: Julius Randle

Sixth Man: Kyle Kuzma

Bench: Lance Stephenson, Josh Hart, JaVale McGee, Ivica Zubac

Each of the six best players in the rotation is still fantasy-relevant for a team that plans to compete. have a strong offense. Kevin Pelton of ESPN used an RPM-based projection system to estimate that this Lakers team would produce an offensive score of about 4.0 points per 100 possessions better than the league average, which is very similar to Cleveland Cavaliers last season. The 2017-18 Cavaliers averaged 112.9 points per 100 possessions, making it the NBA's fifth-best attack. If the 2018-19 Lakers are as good at attack, it will mean that there will be a lot of fantasy production to do. But what would be the appearance of the offense?

A difference between this proposed offense and the normal LeBron offense is that LeBron would not necessarily be the best distributor of the team. Lonzo Ball has a vision of Jason Kidd-like and a pbading ability, and he is both a general ground natural and an indifferent marker. For LeBron, this is the first time that he will play with a leader of this caliber who can actually give the floor and give the ball to LeBron in advantageous positions.

LeBron is a very experienced player – he has always been – so he will always be without dribbling. But when he plays the ball, he should be able to get stronger positions that create easier scoring opportunities. This could lead to higher shooting percentages and potentially more than 3-pointers for LeBron, although that would probably be at the expense of a few badists.

On the other hand, Caldwell-Pope (2.1 did 3 points per game), Kuzma (2.1 3-pointers) and Ball (1.7 3-pointers) were 3-point high-yield shooters. last season. According to Basketball Reference, Caldwell-Pope was helped on 87.4 percent of his 3-pointers, Kuzma on 88.1 percent of his and Ball on 74.4 percent of his. So, everyone should be adept at getting open spots this season when LeBron has the ball and forces the opposing defenses to collapse as he can. If they do it and shoot down what should be a larger volume of open looks, everyone could do treys at a similar or higher volume, but with greater precision.

Ingram and Ball will likely have to make the biggest adjustments to their games, each being used to creating his own shots on goal (by 82Games, Ingram was helped on only 36.3 percent of his field goal attempts. 2 points, while Ball was helped on 32.7 percent of his)

He usually has to be the full time leader when he is on the court, but he is particularly poor with regard to setting up his own jumper. He has shown some promise as a sniper in the second half of his rookie season, and he should have a much greater chance of playing with LeBron. With the natural progression as a sophomore, playing LeBron should really improve Ball's effective scoring ability and maybe get his field percentage north of 40 percent

Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma will have a lot season playing alongside LeBron James. Photo by Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images

Ingram will have to show that it can be effective as a pure finisher that does not work so much on dribbling, and it's not always an easy transition . But if he can do it, he could turn out to be the second-leading scorer in the team with higher percentages than ever before.

Randle's production would depend on his ability to play mainly in the center, which would be necessary to maximize his minutes on a team that now has three starting-size attackers between 6 feet 8 inches and 6 feet 10 inches next to him. Randle would be under-sized for a full-time center (he is ranked at 6 feet 9 inches), but his physical dimensions are similar to those of [Kevin] and their production last season was in many ways very similar.

average of 30.8 points per 100 possessions on 45.8 FG% with 16.2 rebounds / 100 and 0.7 blocks / 100, while Randle averages 28.9 points / 100 on 55.8 FG% and 1.0 blocks / 100. Love was a great 3 point shooter, which Randle had never been, and was able to space the floor for LeBron, but he did not. did not have the defensive ability to play full-time power ahead. If Randle can fulfill the offensive role of love with more of an inner penchant but match his rebound and play more solidly on the inside defensive, he could be very valuable to the Lakers. He could also benefit from the great looks of two great ball generals at Ball and LeBron, which would allow him to have a double double potential with stronger and better shooting percentages next season.

The Lakers are not doing much to diminish LeBron's value outside of the likelihood that he is leaving the gas a bit, playing fewer minutes per game, probably less than 82 games. He may give up a few pbades, but he can also get higher shot chances by playing Ball.

The other Lakers will drop the volume of scores by playing next to LeBron, but they also plan to have more effective shots. which should be a very strong team offense that produces prolific amounts of points. It is unclear whether this move will result in a championship dispute for the Lakers, but LeBron at L.A. should produce very good results for the entire team.

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