Why The Lakers’ Backcourt Can’t Hold Up In The Playoffs

We face the hard truth about a roster built on offense that cannot survive playoff matchups. We weigh what it would take to build around Luka with defense-first pieces and the courage to move on from big names.

• why the backcourt bleeds points against elite guards
• why Austin Reaves is a role player not a second star
• how point differential exposes the ceiling
• why Luka and LeBron both need the ball
• trade logic for Reaves and letting LeBron walk
• targets that fit Luka’s game and cover defense
• role players who help if the scheme shifts
• why narrative wins cannot fix bad defense
• whether the team can escape the play-in

Please make sure to like, subscribe, subscribe, comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show, and let me know your thoughts

Transcript

Frustration Boils Over

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What's up, everybody? It's your favorite show's favorite show, get a bucket. I'm your host, Trey, and as usual. Hope you're all having a wonderful, wonderful day. Now, y'all know I'm a Lakers fan, so I gotta talk about my boys real quick because I'm actually very pissed off. That's right. I am very perturbed. Because, hear me out. We're not a championship team. We're not. Let's just call space spade. I could see us losing in the first round. Luca's our best player. Cool, buddy can hoop. I'll give that to you. On the offensive end. Defensively, trash. Now, his running mate at the two-guard spot is Austin Reeves. Our backcourt getting cooked. All right. If we go up against any top guards, like I'm, and I mean any. Matter of fact, we're looking at the league. Let's just go down, right? The league. OKC getting us out the way. Detroit getting us out of the way. Spurs getting us out of the way. Celtics getting us out the way. Even the Knicks are getting us out of the way. The Cavs are getting us out of the way. Luckily, they just can't defend the best on the backcourt, so we might have a shot. You got the Rockets, they're getting us out of the way. The Nuggets, they're getting us out of the way. Minnesota, didn't they already get us out the way in the playoffs just last season? Yeah, they did. I can see the Raptors doing the same daggone thing. It starts getting interesting when we hit the Suns, because I can still see the Sun getting the best of us. Philly could get the best of us. Orlando just recently got the best of us. Actually, as I think about it. Now that might not be from a guard perspective, but overall, across the board from the starting five, yeah, they put BTA, they came back. I'm just saying, ladies and gentlemen, my backcourt is very suspect. And the crazy thing is, I'm starting to hear rumors like, oh, Austin Reeves isn't a role player. To be clear, ladies and gentlemen, Austin Reeves is in fact a role player, okay? If you put him as the focal point of a team, respectfully, your team is not getting that far into the playoffs, if at all. And I'm being generous right now, only because he had a couple good games before his hamstring injury. I'll give him that. But our lineup right now, both Luka Donczyk, Austin Reeves, Marcus Smart, LeBron James, and DeAndre Ayton. We are easily one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA. We are, like without question. Matter of fact, if you want to look at our point differential, we are one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeenth. And keep in mind, we're slightly above the Clippers, who were very lackluster early on. The Hawks, who were playing without Trey Young for quite a while. Like these are the teams that we're competing up against right now. Point differential, meaning how many points we score versus how many points the opponent, our opponents score. Like we're not that far off from teams like the Grizzlies, the Trailblazers, the Bucks without Giannis, the Mavs with Coop in and out of lineups at times. No Kyrie, no AD. Like, this is what my Lakers have been putting us through. Okay. Now, I've said this before this season started, and I'm gonna keep saying it. We have to, one, let Braun walk. We can't trade him. It is what it is. We gotta try and flip Austin Reeves, ladies and gentlemen. Him and Luka Donczyk do not work out. In order for them two to work out and us win a championship, they have to be the best offensive duo every single night. Let me say that again. Every single night. So in a playoff series, seven games, they have to be the best offensive players, the best offensive duo every single night. And meanwhile, the other team has to be trash on offense. They have to. Because these boys don't defend where Fed goes. They don't. They don't. They don't. And again, ladies and gentlemen, when we're thinking about teams like the Thunder, you mean to tell me SGA is not going to play well and defend? Lou Dorse's not going to be able to hit a shot and defend. Jalen Williams is not going to be able to play on both sides of the ball. The Detroit Pistons are going to cook us. The Celtics are going to cook us. We have to think, okay, if since Luca's going to be our star player, which I might even have gripes about Luca being our star player, having Austin Reeves as the person we're trying to force to be the next player, the next option. Hell no. If that happens again, meaning if we don't trade Austin Reeves and let Braun go into offseason, we're going to continue to be in this purgatory, this middle ground, and I hate it. I do. Because again, we already know Luka Doncic doesn't play well off the ball. He's got to be very, the offense has to be focused around him. That's partly the reason why the Mads ended up trading him. Because he doesn't play defense. And then Austin Reeves, 6'5 shooting guard, who doesn't play defense, has to rely on getting to the free throw line this particular season. That's the reason why his points have upticked a little bit. So when the ref starts blowing the whistle, that changes how a defender has to guard him. Not every time he's getting fouled, by the way. Refs are being a little bit decent on this here whistle, which I can't be overly mad at. But then when we end up getting to the free throw line and getting these points, we give up points on the opposite end. So I do got to be mad at that. Again, we have to be able to flip Austin Reeves. Somebody has got to look at him and say, you know what? Maybe we'll take a chance at giving him a max deal. And we'll trade you this star player for this star player. I would be potentially okay with that. Like I've said this before, I think Donovan Mitchell could actually play well with Luka Doncic. I think that's somebody who we could target. Let's say Braun decides to leave my Lakers and go to the Cavs. Us trying to flip Austin Reeves for Donovan Mitchell, I might not be too madass, especially if the Cavs would be willing to make that happen. I doubt it. But there's some team out there that is going to be stupid enough to believe that Austin Reeves is a star player. Remember, ladies and gentlemen, Austin Reeves, I'm not mistaken, about what, 27 years old? Turning 28 in May, turning or May-June time frame. So we're already in the prime years, buddy's strictly just a role player. He's having a good season. But let's be clear too, Devin Harris was an all-star at one point in time in his career. Devin Harris, some of y'all might not even know who that is. I deem him a role player. Just because you make an all-star appearance does not mean you're still not a role player, ladies and gentlemen. So having Luca and Austin as our backcourt. Marcus Smart in his prime, I'm not mad at Marcus Perry with Luca. I'm not. I actually can keep Marcus Smart on the team, especially if we get him at a friendly deal. Because again, he's a little older now, if I'm not mistaken. He's probably about, what, 31? All right, cool. I can work with that for a couple more seasons. Braun gone eventually. I kind of am okay with DeAndre Ayton from a scoring perspective. Because again, Luca with bigs, it works out. I would love to see Ayton a little bit more aggressive and better on the defensive end. We need players who are defensive-minded. Keep in mind, we got Luke Kennard, good shooter. We got Jake Laravia, good shooter. We got Rui Hachamura, solid score. We got Jared Vanderbilt who plays solid defense. And then Jackson Hayes, he's an okay backup big. My thing is this, ladies and gentlemen, if we don't do anything, I think we have enough scoring to focus on and try to work with. Let's go ahead and move these two big pieces that we have. Do they actually work with Luka Donchik? Braun and Luca don't work well. They don't. The chemistry is not there. And also, ego-wise, we're trying to figure out whose team is it still. Should be Lucas, but Abraun's still here. He's been around for a couple seasons, and again, when we're talking about careers, Braun is pretty revered. Can't take that away from him. But it's got to be Luca's team. Luca got to be able to do whatever he needs to do, which that does not include Braun. Braun's not the scorer that Luca would need. Now, if Luca was better off ball, it works out. If Braun was better off ball, it works out. Both of them are ball-dominant guards. And the main reason why it don't work out with Austin Reeves is because, again, from a guard perspective, I'm talking about guarding like defense. Who are either one of them going to guard? Remember, Luca's 6'8. So Austin Reeves off top gonna have to guard the smaller players. Because when we're talking about foot speed, Luca's not moving them puppies unless we're talking about offense. And you mean tell me I got Austin Reeves guarding Shea or D-Book or Jalen Brown? Like, respectfully, Austin just got cooked by Peyton Pritchard. P. Rabbit. So you want him, and no disrespect to P. Rabbit, because sixth man of the year, right? No disrespect to him, but like there are other guards that are better, more physically imposing, who can score a little bit better, who can defend a lot better. Like that's who Austin Reeves is gonna have to check. Oh, I hear you. Mark is smart. He's gonna have to check them. Okay, so that means Austin Reeves is still gonna have to guard the two guards. No, he's getting cooked. And oh my gosh, when you think about it, that means Luca's gonna have to guard what? The small forwards? So like he's gonna have to guard who? Kawhi? Jason Tatum's? The Kevin Durance? Like Franz Wagner would give him buckets. Luckily, he didn't play. So again, ladies and gentlemen, when we're talking about defense, Luca needs to hide on defense. That's why the Mavs did so well. People like P.J. Washington played well, Daniel Gafford played well, Derek Lively played well. We don't have those quite yet. That's what we need to focus on. So again, ladies and gentlemen, when I'm talking about my Lakers, respectfully, we have a lot of things to work on. We have a lot of things to focus on. Defense being the main thing. And the way we actually get on track is by letting go of our big our current quote unquote big three. Because it's one, it's really, it shouldn't be counted as three, and we not really that big when we're talking about it. No, did he? Like, we got to think about this though. Luca's pretty spectacular, right? Bronn's career has been pretty spectacular. Can't take that away from either one. Does it work now? No. So as a result, who's the future? Luca. Hopefully. Because you know what? If we don't start pairing up good talent around him, hell, if I'm Luca, I'm ready to leave. I can go somewhere. Like, I don't know. Back to the Mavs. Or let's figure out if I can play with the Spurs. I'd play with Wim. I wouldn't mind being Victor Women Yama's teammate. Rocking with Stefan Castle and Dylan Harper and them. I wouldn't be mad at that. They got a bunch of defenders on that team. So again, ladies and gentlemen, hell, I might even try to run with Ant-Man. I'll go to Minnesota. Because again, ladies and gentlemen, Ant-Man would actually fit better with Luca than anybody that I just mentioned. Because Ant can actually defend plus score at an elite level. Just saying. And they got bigs too. Shout out Rudy Gobert. Let's have Rudy take a little pay cut. Nasreed. He might be able to get off a little bit. Jerry Vanderbilt can score a little bit and defend. I'm just saying, ladies and gentlemen, Luca, he might have us on the clock. So we gotta put forth our best effort. And I do have question marks around the Lakers organization and management being able to do such a thing. We're trying. I like the Luke Kennard signing. I like the Jake LaRavia signing. If we actually had defense to boot, problem is we don't. So again, ladies and gentlemen, my Lakers are giving me a little calls for pause, and I'm telling you right now, we're not championship bread. We're not gonna win the championship this season. My cousin tried to tell me that we can win it off narratives and script. Right? No, I don't think so. I don't think this is the season. Because again, all we got is Luca, Braun, and Austin Reese. And to be clear, Braun already said we can't be considered contenders because we can't lock down for 48 minutes. He's also talking, he has to be talking about himself. He might not be, but he should be talking about himself. He should be including himself. So again, ladies and gentlemen, if if one of our big three even point that out, and remember too, he's saying that, and our teammates, his teammates could have gripes about him saying that. Because Braun don't be showing up all the time defensively. Don't be showing up with effort. And you can talk about the age all you want to. He's still on the court. He's still on my team. He's still getting$53 million. I'm gonna talk like this the way I need to. Because you rock, you are locking up a lot of our team budget. So how dare you sit up there and try to call everyone else out when you have fault too? Same with Luca. I'll even give you the fact that at least Austin tries on defense. He's just not a good defender at the end of the day. So again, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the Los Angeles Lakers, if you're following them, don't be too impressed. And I'm saying this as a Lakers fan, and it pisses me off. But I gotta call a spade a spade. But I'm very curious, ladies and gentlemen, who you all believe we can beat. Do you think the Lakers, my Lakers, could actually get to the championship, to the finals? Could we even get to the Western Conference finals? That's the question. Like I and and and and and respectfully, if the season were to end today, we are one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eighth. That means we're in the play-in. Which, respectfully, could we lose to Phoenix? I hope not. I genuinely hope not. But let's say we do. Is there a guarantee that we actually beat the Clippers? I don't know. Because Kawhi's playing some good basketball, and all we need is one game to lose that thing. I'm just saying, ladies and gentlemen, I got some question marks around my Lakers right now. We are 34 and 23 currently. We are scoring 115.6 points. Our opponents are scoring 115.9 points. Rounding up. So it's a wash. But that's a daggone shame. Because when you start talking about the upper teams, the OKCs, the Spurs, the Rockets, the Wolves, the Nuggets, they're going to outclass us. And keep in mind, too, like the Warriors are actually playing okay basketball, and they don't even have Jimmy Butler no more. They just traded John Dincominga. Like it is ridiculous that they did get Christoph Porzingas. And if healthy, that's going to cause a problem because we don't have good height. Aiden cool, he's not the best defender against Biggs. And KP stretches the floor out. So now this is going to aid to Steph Curry, who also stretches the floor out. I'm just saying, ladies and gentlemen, we got some we got some hesitancy if I'm if you're a Lakers fan like myself. But I'm very curious who you all believe we could actually beat. So please make sure to like, subscribe, subscribe, comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show, and let me know your thoughts. My name is Trey. I'm the host of Get a Bucket. I hope you are all having a good one. Take care.