3 ways the Los Angeles Lakers can survive — and maybe thrive — without Anthony Davis

1. Lakers need to fix the transition defense

Los Angeles hasn’t been as successful as they’d hoped this season, but it generally hasn’t been from a lack of effort, and they’ve spent most of the season as a top-10 defense until recently. The Lakers are clearly working hard for 95% of the game.

That’s why their refusal to play defense in transition has been so baffling.

The Lakers are dead last in transition defense, per Cleaning the Glass, and are giving up the fourth-most transition opportunities of any team. That’s a difficult combination to overcome.

It’s easy to blame effort, particularly when players complain about calls instead of getting back. The team certainly is susceptible to letting a cold shooting streak or harsh whistle affect them. And while effort is a part of the equation, it’s far from the only factor.

The team has struggled with floor balance. LeBron, AD, and Westbrook want to live in the paint, and the wings and some of the guards (Troy Brown, Lonnie Walker, Patrick Beverley, and Juan Toscano-Anderson) are often stationed in the corners. So if a Laker misses a shot at the rim, there are rarely enough bodies between the opposing fast break and the hoop.

While offensive rebounding isn’t a strength of LA’s, they also have a lot of players who like to lurk around and swipe at the ball for cheap rebounds, giving up transition opportunities. Westbrook and Patrick Beverley, in particular, are prone to crashing the glass when they may be better served getting back on defense.

Coaching can continue to emphasize the importance of sprinting back in transition, and schematic or personnel changes can shift floor balance in a better direction. One natural fix could be in the works: center Thomas Bryant loves to work from the elbows and can even space the floor for an above-the-break three. If he receives an uptick in minutes in AD’s absence, his mere presence a little further from the hoop could help stymie the flood at least a little by giving LA’s transition defense a head start back to the other side.

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