After losing in the first round of the NBA playoffs this season, the Los Angeles Lakers must revamp the roster for next year.
Los Angeles built a complimentary roster to surround LeBron James and Anthony Davis, but those plans unraveled when either of the two, and oftentimes both this season, were injured.
Heading into next season, L.A. must find more skilled players who don’t rely on James and Davis to do all the creating on offense; it makes the scheme too predictable and forces those players to make shots off the ball, and that wasn’t the case against the Phoenix Suns.
In that series, the Suns packed the paint and clogged all the driving lanes James could take, forcing him to find teammates out on the perimeter instead. Phoenix’s strategy worked because the Lakers didn’t have any other consistent off-the-bounce threats other than James after Davis went down.
