Lakers Marcus Smart & J. Vanderbilt IN THE LAB Putting in Work! | How they TRANSFORM the Lakers D!

Lakers Marcus Smart & J. Vanderbilt IN THE LAB Putting in Work! | How they TRANSFORM the Lakers D!

[Music] NBA training camp is drawing near and as we get closer to it, more Laker players are coming back to the team facility, posting about it on their own social media or the team is posting about it. And today we got both Marcus Smart and Jared Vanderbilt working out the Lakers facility. two guys that have a lot to offer the team and two guys that are finally healthy over the offseason for the first time in two years for both of them. Obviously, that’s a great thing and not only for them, but definitely for the team as well. And talking about what those two have to offer, the first thing that likely comes to mind happens to be defense, which it definitely should. Marcus Smart being the 2022 NBA defensive player of the year award winner. Vanderbilt when healthy is highly regarded and widely regarded as an elite defender. And with those two healthy, they’re probably the best two defenders on the Lakers entire team and could definitely make a difference to the team, potentially making them a top 10, if not even top five defense this season if they can stay healthy. I mean, the last time the Lakers got a healthy Jared Vanderbilt, he’s made a difference to their defense. Dating back to the 2022 23 NBA season, they have never been worse defensively with Vanderbilt on the court. I mean, prior to trading for Vanderbilt back in 2022 23, the Lakers ranked 20th in defensive rating. But then after acquiring Jared Vanderbilt, that immediately shot up to top three, ranking third in defensive rating for the rest of the 2022 23 NBA season. Or then for the 23-24 NBA season, without a healthy Jared Vanderbilt, the Lakers ranked 17th on defense. But with a healthy Jared Vanderbilt, ranked a little bit better at 15th. or then for last season without a healthy Jared Vanderbilt, the Lakers ranked 19th in defense spreading, but with him ranked 13th in defense spreading. So no matter what we look at it, they’re definitely better and obviously better equipped on defense with Jared Vanderbilt. And not only with Vanderbilt, but now Mark is smart, too. So the question now becomes, how good on defense can the Lakers be with these two? Can they stay healthy? Can they play together on the court? What should their rotation look like with them? and what can their team look like, especially their defense with these two now added in. We’re going to talk about exactly that during today’s video. And well, to begin, I guess we do have to start about their health. I mean, anytime you talk about Jared Vanderbilt and or Marcus Smart, you do have to address the health issues with them. Jared Vanderbilt, unfortunately, not hitting the 50 game mark in 2 years now. Now, if you go back to the 2022 23 NBA season, believe it or not, he did play 78 games that year. even prior to that had not played below 70 games in a few years. So, I’m really hoping he can get back to that the durability with him, the player that he once was and ability to stay on the court, which is really the best ability. And if he can get back to that, how much could that offer the Lakers team? How much better could they be on defense even without Anthony Davis now? I think actually a lot better. Like I point out with the Vanderbilt on the court compared to off the court, their defense has been astronomically better, which is really not that shocking. If you’re talking about a versatile defender, then look no further than Jared Vanderbilt. A guy that truly can defend one through four on the court. You know, that term often gets thrown around, but that’s something that Vanderbilt actually can do. Defend point guards, shooting guards, small forwards, and power forwards. Even sometimes in a small ball lineup, defend small ball centers, too. But again, the point here being that he is a very versatile defender. No matter what way you want to look at it, and no matter where you want to look, he is a very versatile defender, and you really can’t deny that. per crafted NBA.com and their versatility rating on defense. Vanderbilt had a 99.8 versatility rating on defense last season. That’s second in the entire NBA only behind former Laker Dorian Smith. Really showing his ability to match up with a ton of different positions and a ton of different players on the court. And not only with Vanderbilt, but also Marcus Smart here, too. Now, he’s not in the top three like here at Vanderbilt, but if we look directly at point guards, Marcus Smart ranked fourth in the NBA last season in versatility rating on defense, having a 72% rating, only falling behind Alex Caruso, who is kind of a shooting guard in my opinion, Shay Gil Alexander, and Chris Dunn among point guards, ranking Marcus Smart the fourth most versatile defensive point guard in the NBA last season. So adding him with Jared Vanderbilt that dramatically boosts the Lakers versatility not only offensively but more so defensively this time something they don’t have much of apart from those two but definitely have a lot to offer with those two. So now going back to the question of how they can work together and if they can work together I mean defensively it’s really a no-brainer obviously yes they can. But if you’re talking about mixing and matching them and what would probably be the best route with that, especially factoring in the other end of the court, that being offense, and what those two lack a bit offensively, that being three-point shooting, it might not be a bad idea to stagger their minutes a bit, which in my opinion, the best route with that would be to have one of them in the starting lineup and with one of them coming off the bench. And that would be the route that I would personally take, at least eventually. Now, I’m not saying they can’t ever play together. I think they can. It’s simply about making the lineup work around them again offensively, not defensively. If you’re going to put another non or poor three-point shooter with them, which would be pretty likely at the center spot, as neither Vanderbilt nor Smart can or should play at center full-time ever, then you’re probably going to have one of DeAndre Eton or Jackson Hayes with them, which again might be a bit tough offensively. But again, if you would instead kind of stagger them, have a guy like Marcus Smart in the starting lineup, moving a guy like Hachimur coming off the bench, then having Vanderbilt end of the game when Marcus Smart leaves the game, that would be a way for them to keep a versatile defensive perimeter option on the court at all times to their team without sacrificing any offense. As again, they will be staggering their minutes a bit and not playing them together that much. And let me be clear, that probably would be the best option as they are by far the most versatile defenders on the team. I mentioned the versatility rating that I brought up before, but a little bit more data to support that. This coming from bballindex.com. Taking a look at the matchup difficulty by offensive LeBron rating and all-around skill set that both Marcus Smart and Jared Vanderbilt match up with last season. On average, they guarded an offensive player ranked at an A or an A minus per offensive LeBron rating. Or if you want to take a look at Marcus Smart, no matter who he matched up with, it was always a very talented offensive player and more likely than not, a very versatile one, too. I mean, last season his grades on defense were an A minus for offensive LeBron talent, an A minus for three-point shooting talent, an A minus for guarding mid-range talent, an A for guarding one-on-one talent, an A minus for rim shot creation talent, an A for rim shot making, and an A minus for playmaking talent. Those are the grades of the players that he matched up with and had to defend on a night-to-ight basis. So no matter who he matched up with, he was a very talented offensive player either in regard to on ball creation, playmaking ability, rim shot creation, so on and so forth. He matched up with some very diff difficult matchups. And again, I think that one of them should be on the court at pretty much all times for their team, which the best row for them to do that with is by having one of them in the starting lineup and with one of them coming off the bench. Now, I’m not saying they have to immediately do that. It would kind of be a punishment without merit to move one of Austin Reeves or Hatchima to immediately coming off the bench without them doing anything wrong, per se. It’s simply about fit here, not really about what they didn’t do right or what they simply can’t do, unfortunately. That’s more about what it is. and why I think it would be a better fit to have one of Jared Vanderbilt or Marcus Smart in their starting five. Really all coming down to defense and overall rotation fit. Again, I really have to emphasize that it wouldn’t be a punishment here. Far too often we interpret being moved to the bench as being benched, which would not be the case here. Even if either one of Rui Hachimura or Reeves would be moved to the bench, I don’t think their overall playing time would be affected that much. I mean, maybe Hachimura going from 32 minutes per game to maybe 30 minutes per game, 28 at the absolute worst. Same with Reeves from 35 to maybe 32 to 33 per game. It really wouldn’t be affected that much. In my opinion, that’s what they should eventually look to do and what they should explore doing in the rotation. I mean again barring a sudden unforeseen improvement on defense from Reeves and or Hatchima which I really don’t find very likely unfortunately then I think this would be the better balance to the rotation and probably the better way to accommodate both Marcus Smart and Jared Vanderbilt in the same rotation. though that’s only my opinion here. That would be the route that I would take to make their rotation fit the best to get the most out of Jared Vanderbilt and Marcus Smart within the same rotation and find a way to make their rotation fit the best overall. Now, maybe they find a way to get around that. Maybe one of Jared Vanderbilt and or Marcus Smart improves offensively and is a bit more reliable offensively next season. Therefore, they can spend more time on the court together even with a non-repoint shooting big or not a reliable three-point shooting big. Maybe that would work out for them. But if I had to guess, it probably will eventually come down to one of them being staggered, aka one joining the starting lineup and one coming off the bench. That would probably be the route that if I had to guess again that they will eventually go. But regardless, I think with the addition of Marcus Smart with a healthy Jared Vanderbilt and a healthy Marcus Smart entering this season, no matter what they do, their defense will be better than last season, especially with a committed Deandon at their last line of defense and offering them some better rim protection. Hopefully, fingers crossed here, that’s kind of a three-level look on defense that they simply did not have before, especially not post deadline last season. A healthy Jared Vanderbilt on the wing or at the perimeter with a Marcus Smart Marcus Smart at the point of attack and a combination of guys at the rim for their team. And that’s a pretty good defensive outlook if you ask me. But with all of that being said, what do you guys think? How do you feel about the outlook of Jared Vanderbilt and Marcus Smart the Lakers next season? How do you feel about what they will or could offer Lakers defense? And how do you think JJ Rek and Co should be looking to utilize them and balance out the rotation with both of them in it? Let me know your thoughts in the comments down below. But I think that’ll pretty much do it for this one. And if you enjoyed the video, then I’ll greatly appreciate it if you drop a like, subscribe to the channel if you have not already, and hit that notification bell to never miss out when I upload a video. But as always, thank you for watching and have a great day or night. [Music]

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