Wow, really surprised by those stats Mediumballer. Doesn't square with the eye test, but does square with some of the absolutely dominating defensive performances we've seen from him in the playoffs when motivated.
The biggest gap between the Lakers and teams like the Clippers or Utah looks to be defensively. If you look at the Clips, the Beverley/Kawhi/PGIII combo will give them a historically good perimeter defense, I'm talking one of the best ever. The Lakers perimeter defense looks like it will be mediocre at best. Guys like Quinn Cook and Troy Daniels are horrible defenders. Vets like Rajon Rondo and Jared Dudley were once good defenders but now are creaky senior citizens who are (generously) below average defenders. Danny Green and KCP are above average defenders but not anywhere close to being NBA all-defense type players, in a totally different league than the Clippers. Lebron can only do so much. The PG defense in particular is going to be an absolute sieve.
Anthony Davis and JaVale McGee give them some good interior defense, but they can't block three pointers.
The biggest gap between the Lakers and teams like the Clippers or Utah looks to be defensively. If you look at the Clips, the Beverley/Kawhi/PGIII combo will give them a historically good perimeter defense, I'm talking one of the best ever. The Lakers perimeter defense looks like it will be mediocre at best. Guys like Quinn Cook and Troy Daniels are horrible defenders. Vets like Rajon Rondo and Jared Dudley were once good defenders but now are creaky senior citizens who are (generously) below average defenders. Danny Green and KCP are above average defenders but not anywhere close to being NBA all-defense type players, in a totally different league than the Clippers. Lebron can only do so much. The PG defense in particular is going to be an absolute sieve.
Anthony Davis and JaVale McGee give them some good interior defense, but they can't block three pointers.