Deng at the 4, Ingram at the 3

[dao]

We havent seen this pairing much. Deng is being played mostly as a 'placeholder' SF while Ingram develops. Lost in all this is that Deng's best position is the stretch 4. He's much more effective at the 4 than the 3, especially in a system predicated on shooting and spacing. The Elephant in the room is that we have two young PF's taking up all the minutes at the 4. This is highly unfortunate though, since our best PF isn't getting any minutes at PF.

Imagine how much better balanced that starting unit would be with

Russell
Young
Ingram
Deng
Mozgov

than with

Russell
Lou/Young
Deng
Randle
Mozgov

option A seems like a no brainer to me Better spacing, better shooting, better defense, and higher team IQ overall.

[Thugnomoe]

Ingram is good with the ball in his hands..
he's way more effective.. especially as he learns the game.

what about randle at the 5?

[MJST]

Deng has no purpose playing the 4 on this team, he's a horrible defender at the 4 and THAT is why he's here. He is a better defender at the 3 and because of all the off ball movement we're doing and working on he's still going to be getting those open opportunities.

We need Deng's defense at the 3 which is where he's the best defender, his offense is better at the 4 but we don't have an offense first mentality on this team, Luke put the kibosh on it despite the style we're playing.

Again, Luol's Freestyle explains it all
https://vine.co/v/56ZTZDFbMBt

[P.K.]

[22]

We'll probably see this lineup at times, but I don't think it's the best one to start.

[dao]

[MJST]

[dao]

[dao]

[Fastbreak32]

[Fastbreak32]

[dao]

[MJST]

I wouldn't make Ingram your primary ball handler if you're having Russell run sets off ball unless that's the play. As of right now both Clarkson and Randle are better at ball handling than Ingram is, and are better at making the defense collapse in order to make plays as well as be a primary ball handler while setting up Russell off ball.


Ingram could get there, but he's not a guy we want being our secondary ball handler a majority of the time in his first year. He's shown flashes, but he's not the guy you necessarily want to give that job to before he's played a true second of NBA basketball. I'm sure Ingram will have plenty of opportunities to showcase his playmaking ability, but if he's our secondary ball handler/passers next to Russell this season than something has gone horribly wrong. It'd be as wrong as some of the people that wanted Zubac to be our primary backup center.

Ingram is still learning the game and would struggle tremendously in a role that he shouldn't be in during his first year once he's played a team more than once.

So right now Ingram shouldn't have that much responsibility and we're bringing him along the way we are to give him tastes of these things, but we're also looking to maximize him at what he does best currently.

So as much as people want to hand the crown to the kid or will say "he played point guard in high school before his growth spurt! Thus he should be our secondary ball handler! look what he's done these last 2 pre-season games." they may want to pump their breaks on that and temper their expectations.

[venturalakersfan]

Well Deng's best position isn't the 4, so that kind of changes the discussion. He was much better defensively at the 3, and that is why we brought him here.
_________________
RIP mom. 11-21-1933 to 6-14-2023.

[dao]

[dao]

[KindCrippler2000]

[ThePALakersFan]

The future of this team is russell and ingram, all the focus should be on putting them in position to succeed and get better.

[greenfrog]

It will happen eventually. I don't see the rush in doing it now. The Lakers need to find out what they have in Nance and Randle first.

But mygod, the spacing and congestion in this starting lineup is atrocious.

[GoldenThroat]

I strongly support this. Deng's best position is at PF by a pretty good margin, and his lineup numbers from last year bear that out. The 4 most productive lineups that Miami had w/Deng were with him at PF, as were 7 out of 8. I stopped counting after the Top 10.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/plus/lineup_finder.cgi?request=1&match=single&lineup_type=5-man&output=per_poss&is_playoffs=N&year_id=2016&team_id=MIA&game_num_min=0&game_num_max=99&c1stat=mp&c1comp=ge&c1val=25&order_by=diff_pts

[nash]

[greenfrog]

[adkindo]

There is more going into the decision than Deng's best position. They need a solid smart vet to hold down that position until Ingram develops into a starter. As far as Deng, I have a very unpopular position with Lakers fans, I dont think he is an average starter at any position. I think he could have 2-3 more decent years off the bench, but he has lost a step for the beginning of the game, but by the end of his time on the court I have noticed he appears to have lost multiple steps. Again, I think Luke and Lakers will accept that to assure Ingram is developed properly.

I love Ingram and I am confident he will be an All-Star, but I didnt see what everyone else seemed to see last night....and I watched the game a 2nd time to review. Handling the ball seemed to help his game, because it gave him confidence to be aggressive, but his ball handling did not advance the team. He could not penetrate the defense most possessions or break down any level of the defense as the defenders easily contained him. He mostly just ended up tossing the ball back to beyond the 3 pnt line and resetting. Like I said, it helped him....but that is his problem to overcome....he has to figure out how to be aggressive off the ball, because the ball will mostly be in Russell's hands, and even Randles this year. His shot looked great, he got on the boards....great game.....but he has a ways to go before he will be able to be very effective from a team perspective with the ball mostly in his hands.

[sonic the laker]

[nash]