THIS is What the Lakers LEARNED from Dorian Finney Smith and Shake Milton's DEBUT! | 3 Big Takeaways

great work keep it up

No center no victory

first

Been saying this for a minute but “Headband Reaves” is a different animal nd the same beast lol shoutout mamba iykyk 🤣😂🤣

Hope everyone has a successful and healthy 2025

Unless they start closing out, boxing out, and cutting off the lane on defense, they will never run deep in the playoffs. They also need Hayes or some other big as a minimum to back up AD or a big to play alongside him like Mobley and Allen. Without those changes they are not going deep. Ever.

Start him now !!!! Tf

It was a good game when they bring out Reaves, Dorian, bron, rui , and Anthony Davis

Lakers need consistent 3pt shooting.
Cavs outshot Lakers on the 3 !

They wnt even with the lakers for 48 hours and yall wanna critique. Dis fan base is weird as hell

Shake Milton almost got his season average in low minutes(10 minutes) is scary but the next game will be great win. LETS GO LAKERS 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Am I crazy for believing that after we end up trading for a Center that one of the 4 of ZO2, Ben Simmons, Bruce Brown, or Malcom Brogdon will end up a Laker off the buyout market to fill the secondary PG role? Or am I tripping? We’re not over the 2nd apron so if I’m not mistaken we can still sign someone off the buyout market even if they made more than the mid level exception if we’re in the 1st apron only. JSM fact check that for me gng.

Lakers need a young, long and mobile center that’s not a liability on defense. Valenciunas is good on the offensive side but he stinks on the defensive side.

Rui sucks

Rui’s been put on notice. Play well and stay. Play inconsistent and get replaced.

The Lakers played very well last night . I mean, after all, they played the best team in the league and did very well, I must say . So, hopefully, when the new guys get caught up on the plays . The Lakers will be very dangerous . Especially when they get back all the others . Dsf and vando with Max AD and even Bron on a good rest day, the Lakers are going to make some noise..

Greatly encouraged by your “take.” Lakers need to reassess Rui along with Gabe to see if they need to add better fitting players to the rotation. I’m excited for what’s to come.

Slide Lebron to the 1 and get a Center

This wasn’t a bad loss and they looked good and need to fix some things but are right there. I think Rui could be good off the bench because he can become their primary scorer. He plays well with Bron and AD but I think he will be able to get 2”+ a night off the bench if he they can convince him that he will become the lead scorer off the bench.

Stop switching everything wtf can't even mix some defense lol!

AD, LeBron ,Rui, Knect, and Reeves do-or -die starters.

I just want them to get a decent big.. If they can get Turner then it would be great.

JJ going for ex teammates😂.

Hachimura is only shooting that percentage because he shoots three three-pointers a game, he’s only shooting the wide open ones and he’s passing up on the covered ones. He also can’t defend the perimeter at all and slows down the offense pretty considerably with his slow decision-making. He was always a sixth or seventh option that we have elevated to a starting option.

That's the lineup....Rui becomes the LeBron of the 2nd line
Reeves
Max
Smith
LeBron
Davis

Gabe
Dalton
Cam
Rui
Nick Richardson

Quincy Olivari
Milton
Vanderbilt
Wood
Hayes / Koloko

If the lakers can somehow get a solid big it’s ggs

I watched the game, its no one's fault. Cleveland just crazy crazy shooting! Mitchell sizzling then Strus making those 3 threes straight crazy. Lakers showed they can play but a lot of polishing to go. Still hopefully they get a valenciunas to help AD when matchups are for bigs.

Center is the key🔑🔑 for victory.

Lakers fans really want another star point guard and a star center, but that shopping list is just too big to be realistic. What they actually need is 1 or 2 more tall 3&D guards and a mediocre tall center for different matchups especially in playoffs. The center is probably more important because AD is not a true center. AD against the bottom 20 centers in the league is a great matchup, but against top guys, and even very physical guys outside the top 10, he needs someone to come in and absorb some of the responsibility.

Anthony Davis is easily the best PF in the league so having a 7 footer who can play physically would open up so many possibilities for AD on both ends of the court, and it would insulate him from having to constantly fight. Against small ball lineups he is still one of the best in the league but he needs that space allow him to roam on defense and get mismatches constantly on offense. The formula with Javale and Dwight was perfect, neither of them were premier centers so they didn't mind being swapped in and out of the lineup based on matchups and having two of them meant they could be hyper aggressive against centers like Jokic giving them 12 fouls before they both foul out.

I think Pelinka tried to go back to this with guys like CWood and Drummond but neither are a great fit for what they want to do. Drum was never going to be okay with coming off the bench, and CWood is fine with it but has a big problem staying healthy and he's not quite big enough.. both commit a lot of fouls so the solution IMO is to have two similar guys like Javale and Dwight again. Jaxson Hayes needs to get healthy and they need one more decent big

Reading these comments tells me yall don't know ball

Shake looked good last night, finney looked timid and confused

Better to switch Rui with DFS. Let DFS provide better spacing and defense to the starting unit. Rui off the bench, providing an offensive punch, with Dlo gone, they need him to be that offensive hub for the second unit.

But yeah the Lakers still need a lot, offensively they stagnate, lacks size after AD, inconsistent play for Role Players and yeah they really need to face the fact that Bron is Aging.

They, as currently constructed, is Mid at best.

It is crazy to think that the Lakers started the season 6-1 and since that hot start they are under .500 at 12-13. Realistically, the Lakers have a long way to go to become any sort of serious contender this year or future years. It's concerning that the Lakers are under .500 in the last 25 games with Lebron and AD being pretty healthy and playing most of the games. The Lakers made a trade and overall, it's a good trade. The problem with this trade that might rear its ugly head down the road is the issue of no longer having Russell on the team for when Lebron, AD or Reaves are out injured. Russell is a player that has shown that he can get his own shot and put up points when needed. Shake Milton and Dorian Finney-Smith are not that type of player. Other than Lebron, AD and Reaves, who on this team can take the ball and go get his own shot when needed. If and when the injuries hit, this will be a problem.

they learned they're not LEGIT contenders

Trade Rui

Lebron ad valancunias dfs reaves will be insane starting line up

Bro if christie falls off we can have this starting line up
AR, DFS, Bron, Vando, AD
Or move bron to the point

I wonder how they'd play with C wood and Vando being back, they'll get a much needed scorer in Wood and the best perimeter defender in Vando

Cavs could’ve easily blown us out. I’d say it was already a good trade.

Currently for the Lakers
Dorian Finney smith
20 Mins
PPG 2.0 2.0 RPG 1.0 APG
Three point makes and attempts 0/2 =0% Field goal makes and Attempts 1/4 =25% Had 0 Steals 0 Blocks. Not a great debut for him but he wasn’t even in LA for 24 hours yet. he didn’t know any plays he didn’t know any players well. A little trouble for him.
Shake Milton 6.0 PPG 2.0 RPG APG 0.0
Three Point makes and attempts 2/4 = 50% Field goal makes and attempts 2/4 = 50% Had no steals or Blocks not a horrible debut from shake milton though. He also didn’t know any plays and he hadn’t even been in LA for 24 hours then. Now that the lakers have 1 day of practice they will probably let the other players shoot around while dorian and Shake Mil are figuring out plays with JJ Red and the other staff

Who is number 10? I feel like he can help us out. Long and mobile.

Exelente explicacion eres el que mejor a analisado el equipo depues del juego contra Cleveland. Creo que Hachimura debe ir al banco este año no estado a la altura de su nivel, y creo que se va en un buen trapaso por Fox o Lavin, o un centro bueno para ayuadar bajo el palo

Jj is just another small ball loving coach he no different from darvin hamas 😂😂

The bench performance was disappointing, but I'm staying optimistic that they'll bounce back!

How do you think the Lakers rotation will change going forward after seeing how DFS/Milton/Reaves were used last night? Comment down below!

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