{"id":163916,"date":"2025-10-23T08:44:38","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T12:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=163916"},"modified":"2025-10-23T08:44:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T12:44:38","slug":"projecting-los-angeles-lakers-five-best-defenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/23\/projecting-los-angeles-lakers-five-best-defenders\/","title":{"rendered":"Projecting the Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 Five Best Defenders"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few days before the season opener, Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick talked about how the team has to instill habits for a championship defense<\/a>. For years, the mantra has been \u201cdefense wins championships.\u201d Well, last year, the Lakers had the 17th-best defense<\/a> in the league. There was a stretch of almost a month when they were the best defensive team in the NBA. It shows they are more than capable of playing great defense, but how do they get there?<\/p>\n

This offseason, they got a few good individual defenders. But can their team defense get to a title-worthy level? Let\u2019s talk about the potentially best defenders on the Lakers\u2019 roster, their strengths and their weaknesses.<\/p>\n

Projecting the Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 Five Best Defenders<\/h2>\n

For the Lakers to have any chance of competing for a championship, they need to have at least a top-10 defense. The potential is there, so let\u2019s take a look at their possible best defenders.<\/p>\n

Jarred Vanderbilt<\/h3>\n

Jarred Vanderbilt<\/a> is probably one of the best defenders the Lakers have on their roster. The challenge is his offensive production. Vando is a perimeter defender who can effectively guard two through four. He has the length, quickness, and skill set to switch onto guards and disrupt the offense.<\/p>\n

Vando shouldn\u2019t defend guys bigger than him like he did during the 2024\u201325 season. He is best used guarding scoring wings who do not have tight handles—think Devin Booker<\/a>, Franz Wagner<\/a>, Kevin Durant<\/a>, and similar players. During the 2022-23 season, he was at his best. But after the foot surgery, he lost a step. It will be interesting to see how Redick uses Vando, as he is better at guarding guards than Jake LaRavia<\/a>. More on him below.<\/p>\n

Jake LaRavia<\/h3>\n

LaRavia has battled injuries through his first three seasons in the league. If he stays healthy, he has the potential to be a younger alternative to Dorian Finney-Smith<\/a>. Last season, Finney-Smith was guarding wings, something that LaRavia has the skills to do. And unlike Vanderbilt, he can shoot from behind the arc, with a career 37.2% efficiency.<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to see how Redick uses LaRavia and Vando. If he likes, he can throw both of them out there and disrupt the opponent\u2019s offense. The challenge is finding shooting with those two on the floor alongside Luka Doncic<\/a> and LeBron James<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One thing LaRavia does well is put in the effort. While he is not the defender that Finney-Smith is, he has the size to use on wings and big guards. He hustles, puts in the effort, and is always active.<\/p>\n

Deandre Ayton<\/h3>\n

When people think of a rim-protecting big, they surely do not think of Deandre Ayton<\/a>. He is not the best defensive center, but there are positives to his game. For starters, he doesn\u2019t commit silly fouls. Through five games in the preseason<\/a>, he fouled a total of nine times. That is fewer than two fouls per game. Yes, some players can beat him, but he doesn\u2019t foul them when they do.<\/p>\n

On this Lakers roster, Ayton’s role will be to grab rebounds and block shots. Do not expect him to guard pick-and-roll sets at a high level, but he can probably average double-digit rebounds. During the preseason, he averaged nine per game and almost two blocks. Slightly increasing those numbers will do wonders for the Lakers.<\/p>\n

Marcus Smart<\/h3>\n

Luka Doncic<\/a> personally lobbied and called Marcus Smart<\/a> to get him on the Lakers\u2019 roster. But the former Defensive Player of the Year is not at the level he was during his Boston Celtics days. The past two seasons, he battled plenty of injuries and played in only 54 games in total. It is clear he has lost a step.<\/p>\n

Smart is still a big guard<\/a> who the Lakers can throw out there, but he can no longer defend the likes of Ja Morant<\/a>, Steph Curry<\/a>, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>, and similar players effectively. And now that he cannot lock them down like he did years ago, he is more prone to fouls while trying to take charges. The former DPOY still has the physicality and high IQ to be a factor on the defensive end.<\/p>\n

LeBron James<\/h3>\n

Despite his injuries and age<\/a>, LeBron James<\/a> might still be one of the best defenders on the Lakers\u2019 roster. Now that the team has Ayton, they might preserve his energy on offense and ask more of him on the defensive end.<\/p>\n

If they need a quick two- to three-minute stretch of lockdown defense, few players in this league can do it like James. The problem with doing that is that it will take a lot of energy, and he might not have it on the offensive end.<\/p>\n

It will be one of the challenges for Redick to best utilize LBJ, and, of course, how much of the new role LeBron accepts<\/a>. Fans might remember Grant Hill<\/a> as one of the better defenders during his last years. He finished 7th and 14th in DPOY voting at ages 38 and 39. If the Lakers use James in the same role, he can certainly deliver.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 William Liang-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days before the season opener, Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick talked about how the team has to instill habits for a championship defense. For years, the mantra has been \u201cdefense wins championships.\u201d Well, last year, the Lakers had the 17th-best defense in the league. There was a stretch of almost a month […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5291,"featured_media":163930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,26,62],"tags":[1419,49497,2941,428],"class_list":["post-163916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-lakers","category-nba","tag-deandre-ayton","tag-jake-laravia","tag-jarred-vanderbilt","tag-marcus-smart"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163916"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163932,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163916\/revisions\/163932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}