Guarding Luka

[SameOldNudityDrew]

How should we guard Luka this series?

Before sharing your thoughts, let's talk about the challenge of guarding Luka.

The Challenge
In the WCF last year, Luka torched us repeatedly. Sometimes off the pick-n-roll, but sometimes just by driving past or through his own defender, Luka was consistently able to drive to a place on the floor where he's a threat to both shoot or throw an alley-oop to a big man rolling toward the rim. This forced Rudy to have to decide whether to rotate as the help defender or stick to Gafford or Lively as they dove to the basket. And too often, Luka was able to make the reactive decision and the skill to execute it and either get himself a good shot or get an easy alley-oop. That was what beat us last year.

The good news is that Jaxson Hayes isn't as good as Gafford defensively or Lively on either end of the floor. But how would you recommend defending against the pick-n-roll with Luka and Hayes? How about if Rui or LeBron were the rolling partner?

Possible Approaches
In my view, so much is going to depend on the ability to keep Luka as far from the basket as possible. Jaden's a great defender, but I'm honestly not sure he's got the strength to just body up to Luka when he drives like we probably need somebody to do. I noticed we went to Kyle last year on Luka, and I think that was as much for his girth as it was for his length. How risky would it be to put Julius on him? I would think Ant is pretty strong, but I don't want him picking up fouls. At what point do we risk doubling him, knowing he could find LeBron in a 4 on 3 situation? Do we ever go zone against these guys? I really wonder what you guys would recommend on this.

If we are able to limit the Luka-Hayes lob threat, they're actually more used to playing small with Luka, LeBron, and Rui as their bigs. So I also wonder how that would change the way Luka plays and how we'd need to defend him. I haven't watched their games recently, so I really don't know.

[Q-is-here]

I think it will depend on the personnel and who is doing the screening for Luka. Here are some examples:

- Hayes sets high screen for Luka. Jaden guarding Luka. Rudy guarding Hayes = Drop coverage.

- LeBron sets high screen for Luka. Jaden guarding Luka. Randle guarding LeBron = Switch it.

- Hayes or Vando sets high screen for Luka. Naz guarding Hayes or Vando = Blitz Luka, low man on alert.

So those are three different approaches to high screen and roll with Luka depending on who the screener and who is guarding it.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Someone else was talking about more Randle on Doncic.

I think the rub with that is when they go to the pick-and-roll. Randle has the strength for Doncic... but he's not as used to be in those PnR actions.

I think I agree with Q about the multiple variants. For example, Randle just lets himself get picked and they switch.

[FNG]

I just listened to the crossover Lakers/Wolves pod (a discussion between followers of both teams), and the consensus was we have to avoid doubling Luka if at all possible. So who gets him one on one? My first thought is Jaden, but his lack of bulk might allow Luka to bully his way into the paint too easily. The key to making Luka is to force him to take long 2's...he only made 27% of his shots from 16 feet to the 3-point line this season. That makes me think Randle might be a decent option. Clark is another possibility...he was reasonably effective against Luka this year (Luka shot 6 for 20 for the game with 3 TOS) although Luka was able to deek him into a lot of fouls which put Clark on the bench for all but 17 minutes despite starting.

I expect Finchie to start Jaden on him, but I'm hoping not...Jaden has proven to be a good shot blocker when he is not tasked with guarding their best player, and he also seems to be more effective in getting buckets in that role.

[Phenom]

I mentioned Julius the other day. I say you give the job to Julius and let Ant, Jaden, NAW, Clark, etc focus on LeBron and especially Reaves.

I also wonder could there be some minutes with Rudy, Ju and Naz at the same time. That would be a hell of a zag. Instead of the Lakers forcing the Wolves to be smaller, force them to be bigger.

Ultimately, this is a big test for Finchy. He's had a year to think about what went wrong against Luka last time. I expect the Wolves will have some new buttons to push.

[Phenom]

I just turned on the Grizz Mavs game and I thought I saw JJJ, Aldama and Edey on the floor together. Proof of concept!

[Q-is-here]

I mentioned Julius the other day. I say you give the job to Julius and let Ant, Jaden, NAW, Clark, etc focus on LeBron and especially Reaves.

I also wonder could there be some minutes with Rudy, Ju and Naz at the same time. That would be a hell of a zag. Instead of the Lakers forcing the Wolves to be smaller, force them to be bigger.

Ultimately, this is a big test for Finchy. He's had a year to think about what went wrong against Luka last time. I expect the Wolves will have some new buttons to push.

The Lakers version of small ball isn't all that small though. LeBron, DFS, Doncic, Rui, and Reaves is basically five big wings, with one being really old and one being kinda fat and slow. I almost wouldn't mind us being "forced" to match that group with Randle, Jaden, DDV, Ant, and NAW or Clark and then look to run.

[Phenom]

I mentioned Julius the other day. I say you give the job to Julius and let Ant, Jaden, NAW, Clark, etc focus on LeBron and especially Reaves.

I also wonder could there be some minutes with Rudy, Ju and Naz at the same time. That would be a hell of a zag. Instead of the Lakers forcing the Wolves to be smaller, force them to be bigger.

Ultimately, this is a big test for Finchy. He's had a year to think about what went wrong against Luka last time. I expect the Wolves will have some new buttons to push.

The Lakers version of small ball isn't all that small though. LeBron, DFS, Doncic, Rui, and Reaves is basically five big wings, with one being really old and one being kinda fat and slow. I almost wouldn't mind us being "forced" to match that group with Randle, Jaden, DDV, Ant, and NAW or Clark and then look to run.

That's why I think the Wolves could go big with those 3 and guard them in spurts. Could some big hefty lineups help slow Luka? I think if Naz and Ju are able to hit shots, anything is possible. Hopefully they are comfortable that the Wolves will be here to pay them and they won't let the next contract be a distraction.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

Some great thoughts here, thanks guys!

I do honestly think we might want to think about guarding Luka by committee, just rotating who is guarding him, and also alternating how we approach him.

Girth is the issue, I think. I do think Jaden's just too thin to put him on Luka for too long. At the same time, LeBron might just bully him too. I'd love to see Jaden on Reaves, but that raises all sorts of other questions about who has the size and strength to guard Luka, LeBron, and Rui? Theoretically, Julius and Ant can guard Luka and LeBron, and let's assume we put Rudy on Hayes. Can Conley guard Rui? No way.

I honestly think because of the problems that Luka creates for Jaden and the fact that Reaves would probably roast Conley, Conley should probably come off the bench and play only when Gabe Vincent is on the floor. Jaden would be really good on Reaves and we can't let him get hot.

But could we substitute Conley in the starting lineup without hurting our offense too much? Maybe?

If we start NAW, I think we'd be ok, and then we could put NAW on Reaves and Jaden on Rui. Rui would still be much stronger, but he's obviously not as big a threat as Luka, so I think that would probably be the best way to keep another ball handler out there while matching up defensively.

Alternately, we could put DDV out there instead of Conley to start, but I don't like him on Reaves as much, and I do think having Donte and Naz out there with the second unit has been great and they should be able to really beat up on the Lakers' subs.

I secretly like the idea of running with Rudy, Naz, and Julius, which would give us another big body out there (thanks for the suggestion, Phenom!). Naz-Rui, Ant-LeBron, Julius-Luka, Rudy-Jaxson, Jaden-Reaves. That could be really interesting, though it also feels kind of risky.

I do honestly think that Clark or TSJ or, hell, even Minott, might give us an option on Luka. Clark's shorter than Jaden, but thicker, so Luka could probably lob passes over him, but not get through him as easily. So if we put Clark on him, just remind the help to stay home and guard against the lob. TSJ (is he healthy yet?) is a legitimately thick dude, and he'd give us some offense too. I wouldn't start him, but if we are trying a committee approach to Luka, I could see him on that committee. And Minott, well, that's obviously a stretch, but there's reason to consider it. He's a bad off-ball defender so I wouldn't put him on anyone else, but I think he's been pretty decent on ball and he's just thicker and stronger than Jaden.

I'm just so afraid of Luka picking us apart with that pick-n-roll. When he did that last year and Rudy dropped, Luka was always able to get past his man and force Rudy to choose to take away the lob or help on Luka and whatever he did, Luka made the right play. I know Jaxson isn't as good as those Mavs bigs, but that is the specific play I'm most scared of because Luka's just so good at that. We should have a plan to try to prevent him from getting into that situation in the first place.

[Q-is-here]

I just listened to the crossover Lakers/Wolves pod (a discussion between followers of both teams), and the consensus was we have to avoid doubling Luka if at all possible. So who gets him one on one? My first thought is Jaden, but his lack of bulk might allow Luka to bully his way into the paint too easily. The key to making Luka is to force him to take long 2's...he only made 27% of his shots from 16 feet to the 3-point line this season. That makes me think Randle might be a decent option. Clark is another possibility...he was reasonably effective against Luka this year (Luka shot 6 for 20 for the game with 3 TOS) although Luka was able to deek him into a lot of fouls which put Clark on the bench for all but 17 minutes despite starting.

I expect Finchie to start Jaden on him, but I'm hoping not...Jaden has proven to be a good shot blocker when he is not tasked with guarding their best player, and he also seems to be more effective in getting buckets in that role.

You mentioned it in the game thread, but just wanted to revisit this thread since Drew initiated this question before the series started.

So it does appear we used the "make Jokic a scorer" strategy on Luka, and boy, did he make us pay at first. BUT...none of the other Lakers were really getting involved and ultimately even Luka himself slowed down. It appears turning the water off on LeBron and Reaves is a lot easier than Kyrie. At least for now.

I saw the following guys guard Luka as a primary defender (meaning not including players switched onto him): Jaden, Ant, NAW, and DDV.

We hit the Lakers with a tiny bit of zone. And I think we did one or two late doubles on Luka, but blitzing him was the exception.

So overall, Finch mixed it up but mostly avoided blitzing and doubling.