Los Angeles Lakers: 2018-19 NBA season preview

Storyline 3: Will LeBron fully adapt to the Lakers’ style?

Something that’s been mentioned throughout this article is the Los Angeles Lakers’ desire to play fast. We know they’ve drafted players to help them accomplish that the past two NBA Drafts, but their signings this offseason, in particular LeBron James, may shake things up.

We know LeBron can play up-tempo and is the best passer in the game, but he’s become such a half-court savant that his game is more suited for playing in the post or picking apart a defense with the ball in his hands. This is a perfect solution when the Lakers’ fast break is stifled and we will see how much LeBron is willing to push the tempo.

The Lakers want to swing the ball and adding LeBron along with another ball-dominant guard in Rajon Rondo could put a cap on their ball movement when they are on the floor. Playing them together gives the Lakers a crazy amount of basketball IQ and savviness to create for others, but it will be a work in progress when it comes to sharing the ball with others.

It’s not a concern, it’s just very interesting to see how well LeBron and Rondo dictate the tempo. Rondo led the fastest paced team in the NBA last season with the New Orleans Pelicans, but there weren’t as many mouths to feed as there are now with the Lakers.

A solution to this is to play the young players together, allowing them to play their pass-happy style of basketball, and then stagger LeBron’s and Rondo’s minutes so they can dominate the ball as much as they please. It’s great to have this many ball-handlers on a team, but will these styles come to a head and conflict with what certain players want to do on the court?