Los Angeles Lakers: 3 goals for LeBron James in 2018-19

3. Increase post touches and efficiency

The Los Angeles Lakers’ offense, like most NBA teams, is predicated on playing up-tempo, but finding efficiency in the half-court can come in a variety of ways. One of these strategies is simply posting a player up and have said player read a defense with his back to the basket. The Lakers were top 10 in post touches in 2017-18, but were in the bottom half of the league in points per post touch.

With most of their post touches in Brook Lopez and Julius Randle playing elsewhere, LeBron James is the best candidate to claim those touches from the block. LeBron averaged 4.4 post-up touches per game last year, scoring 0.385 points per touch. This was on a Cleveland Cavaliers team with another prominent post player in Kevin Love, but with the Lakers short on back-to-the-basket bigs, expect LeBron to do more damage from the post.

LeBron has developed a strong set of post moves from a one-leg running fadeaway to overpowering smaller players on switches. With so much shooting and athleticism around him with the Lakers, throwing the ball to LeBron in the post and allowing him to scan a defense and make the right pass or take the shot himself is a strong fallback plan if their fast break is stifled.

LeBron is one of the most efficient players in NBA history, and making the switch to working from the post should only elongate his career as well as unlock another facet of his game. Expect the Lakers to use him on the block plenty this season.