Do the Lakers Need to Rethink What They Need from the Center Position?

In retrospect, the Lakers need to rethink what they need from the center position because signing JaVale McGee, Dwight Howard, Marc Gasol, and Montrezl Harrell as the team’s centers the past two years was a mistake.

The Lakers should look at Anthony Davis, their prototype modern center who can shoot threes or attack the rim on offense and protect the rim or guard the perimeter on defense, to see what they need from their centers. What the defense-first Lakers don’t need are old school low post defensive or offensive centers who can’t stretch the floor with 3-point shooting or play the trapping, doubling, and rotating championship defense the team plays.

JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard proved to be unplayable against most opponents in the playoffs last year as they lacked the mobility, speed, and quickness the Lakers needed to trap, switch and defend on the perimeter. Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell face a similar fate in the playoffs this year as their inability to block shots and protect the rim leaves them vulnerable to being played off the court defensively despite their value on offense.

The problem is the Lakers don’t appear to have learned from their mistakes picking centers the last two seasons as they are now supposedly pursuing centers who will solve rim protection issues but be unplayable in the playoffs. The Lakers need to trade for a quality starting center like Myles Turner or Nerlens Noel now rather than settling for another team’s discards like Andre Drummond or Hassan Whiteside who solve one problem and create another.

Drummond and Whiteside might be able to help hold down the fort for the three to five weeks until Anthony Davis returns but both have the same perimeter defensive liabilities that ultimately doomed McGee and Howard. Signing one of them is like applying a band aid to a badly broken bone. After Anthony Davis’s recent injury scare, there’s no way the Lakers want to see him again playing 50% of his time at center come this year’s playoffs.

Myles Turner and Nerlens Noel are two trade candidates who are talented and young enough to be permanent rather than temporary solutions to the Lakers’ need to find a center to complement and protect Anthony Davis. Both are top-five rim protectors who are younger than Anthony Davis and have the physicality, athleticism, and toughness to protect him from having to defend bigger bruising centers like Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid.

Besides being top-five shot blockers, Turner and Noel have diverse offensive or defensive skill sets that set them apart from limited one dimensional centers like McGee, Howard, Gasol, Harrell, Drummond, and Whiteside. Turner is the prototype modern offensive center who can shoot the three and throw down lobs while Noel is the prototype modern defensive center who can both protect the rim and switch onto and defend smaller players.

In short, they simply can’t be played off the court defensively in the playoffs like the old school centers the Lakers signed over the last two years or are looking at from the buyout market, which is why they’re worth trading for. While it’s always difficult to break up a top-ranked defensive team, the Lakers know they will need a better rim protector in the playoffs than Gasol or Harrell or adding Drummond of Whiteside will be able to provide.

Defending their championship against the Los Angeles Clippers, Utah Jazz, or Brooklyn Nets will be a tougher challenge than the Lakers had to face in the bubble against the Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets, and Miami Heat. The Lakers need a solution to their center conundrum that works in the regular season and the playoffs. Andre Drummond, Hassan Whiteside, or some other candidate from the buyout market is not the right answer.

The Lakers would be smart to trade for Myles Turner or Nerlens Noel to permanently solve their rim protection issues, add a young starting center to protect AD, and double down on their championship caliber defense.

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