LOS ANGELES — Lakers coach JJ Redick said last weekend that Luka Doncic would need to be the player who controls the offense.
And through his first five games, it’s not only played out that way, but it’s also allowed LeBron James and Austin Reaves to create offense in other ways.
Since making his Lakers debut in the Feb. 10 home win against the Utah Jazz, Doncic leads the team in usage rate (31.1% entering Thursday’s home game against the Minnesota Timberwolves), just a smidge above James (30.4%) and significantly higher than Reaves (22.2%).
With the way the Lakers stagger the three within different lineup combinations, James and Reaves still get their fair share of on-ball opportunities, leading units on their own but also in scenarios when it’s two of the three are on the court together.
But Doncic’s presence has opened more off-ball scoring opportunities for James and Reaves.
In the five games before Doncic made his debut, Reaves averaged 2.8 catch-and-shoot 3-pointers per game (28.6% shooting), while James averaged 1.8 (42.9%) in the four games he played from Jan. 30-Feb. 9.
Since Doncic’s debut, those catch-and-shoot opportunities have been more present.
Reaves has averaged 4.3 catch-and-shoot 3s since Doncic made his debut (30.8% shooting) while James has averaged 3.8 (56.5%).
But Doncic’s impact on James and Reaves goes beyond allowing them to shoot easier shots.
“The biggest effect of that is with Austin because of how much ball-handling he had to do,” Redick said before Thursday’s game. “It wasn’t even just the shot creation part for himself and others. It was literally just getting the ball across halfcourt.
“He was in the lineup a lot of times without a ball-handler. And now, I think in five games, I there’s been one scenario where we’re in an [out of timeout play] and I’m like, ‘let’s do this’ and we only have one ball-handler out there. Now, we have Gabe [Vincent], Austin, Luka, sometimes [Jordan Goodwin] even, we have four guys that can do it. And that’s what we try to do all year with LeBron is not tax him with just bringing the ball up. We want him obviously to have the basketball, but in his spots and in the halfcourt.”
Timberwolves coach Chris Finch acknowledged the kind of threat James is off the ball.
“I mean such a great downhill player on the catch, so if you’re over helping in the gaps, you’re gonna open a massive like runways for him to get downhill,” he said. “That’s a not going to end well for a defense, generally. That’s probably the biggest thing.”
Finch added: “Generally, you’ll throw double-teams at Luka, but when LeBron’s off the ball and try receiving it quickly, he’s such a great passer, he can pick you apart. It’s funny. We spent a lot of our coaches’ meeting talking about LeBron off-ball and what that does to a defense. So just a whole other threat level.”