[McMenamin] Sources told ESPN that Davis made it clear to the organization he wanted to have more support at center so he wouldn’t have to play so much 5 during the regular season. Davis’ desire to spend more time at power forward was heard.
by LonzoBBBall
21 Comments
Not liking this tbh.. if AD wants to play the 4 and we have Wood/Hayes at the 5, then that’s just cutting a lot of minutes for Rui and Vando..
Experimenting with a Wood/AD lineup for short stints is fine, anything else would be a bad idea and significantly hurts our ability to defend. Do we really think LeBron wants to go back to being a 3 full time and chasing around guys on the perimeter all game long? Does anyone also think Wood can actually guard any of the centers that actually matter?
Everyone seems to be so enamored with this two big lineup without stopping to realize that doing so requires D’Lo and Reaves to anchor the perimeter defense. Good joke.
If AD shares the floor with either Wood or Hayes he will still be the 5
Makes sense during the regular season. AD is less likely to get injured if he doesn’t have to bang with centers all the time. And with the current roster, he can probably coast a little bit during the regular season.
AD has always stepped up and played the 5 when it was needed. I am not even remotely concerned about this
Having AD at the 4 means LeBron would be at the 3. That’s tough for a 38 year old Bron. Wood is better off on the bench. Also, is skinny Wood going to guard opposing 5s if he starts?
This is completely delusional. AD thinking he can be a 4 with DLo and 38-year-old LeBron is ridiculous. LeBron will be chasing guys around the perimeter and Reaves will be POA on the best opposing guard every night. BBQ chicken and a 140-pt defensive rating, only increasing AD’s workload.
Just play the 5 and quit whining.
Alright so when AD sits. Who exactly is defending the post?
Wood can play 10 minutes a game next to AD and significantly reduce AD’s wear and tear against bigger bodies. Is Wood going to be okay getting beat up for 10 minutes every night? Lol idk.
But IF you can get him to buy in and take the beating knowing that AD will fly out of the rafters for a block, then it can work. Because offensively they fit great. We just need 3 guys on the floor that will get back in transition. I want Vincent, Prince, and probably Max? Idk.
AD needs to accept that his best position is the 5, the team can surround him with better spacing and he himself is not able to stretch the floor
He better bring back that jumpshot and pre- injury quickness then too
Someone like Vando might get most of their minutes squeezed then. Front court is already crowded and gets even more crowded.
But no matter how deep a team might seem, it always rounds out to around 8 guys you can consistently rely on.
It’s not just Wood that will take some minutes at the 5, there’s also Jaxton Hayes.
Personally I didn’t think AD was going to last the season if Hayes was his main replacement at least wood is competent enough offensively while being a decent rebounder to offsure some of the drop off in talent.If wood can be a decent box out body and spacer for AD and bron that would be good.
Will work perfectly fine in the regular season but be cut back drastically in the postseason. Anybody getting their panties in a bunch over AD preferring to the play the 4 in the regular season should not be taken seriously. MF’s act like Lebron was 25 3 years ago when he was playing literal point guard when they won an ACTUAL NBA title playing plenty of traditional 2 big lineups….
If AD had half of Kobes mentality he’d be the best player in the NBA
Might get downvoted but I always thought his mentality of not wanting to play center is extremely strange. This isn’t something new either he’s been doing this since New Orleans. It would make more sense if he had the skills of a 4 such as spacing the floor, but his 3 point shooting is terrible now and I’ll be generous by saying he’s a below average passer. It’s basically either our spacing will suffer with him & Hayes sharing the floor, or our interior defense will be terrible with Wood playing the 5. AD is great but I can’t think of one other big man in the history of the game with his skill set that was so against playing his natural position.
Imo if this is true we should definitely try to find a wood upgrade if he doesn’t perform . I.e a bigger body who’s overall less ass on D and shoots well : I would really like to go after Kelly olynk as jazz have too many 7fters and he’s an elite shooter who has no issue being ‘physical’ with other bigs. Also on a cheap contract
Yeah yeah Lakers are better when AD plays 5, but if AD has said for YEARs he doesn’t like playing the 5, and it’s mostly for the regular season I don’t see a problem
Witch im fine with he still need to play the 5 in marquee matchups like jokic and embiid
Some of you are ridiculous in these comments sections. The overall point isn’t whether or not AD is better suited for a 4 or 5 spot or what’s most optimal for our lineups. We need him and LeBron as fresh as possible for a title run, and if that means AD playing the five only in spots of games or late in games, then fine by me. We want guys to soak up minutes, not play the whole game. It’s like yall forgot in 2020 we rarely had to worry about having two bigs at the end of games. I get banging big bodies doesn’t happen as much but it’s still unnecessary wear and tear. Let him free safety like back in 2020 or like how Giannis usually does.
Also this roster is much more balanced and probably the most balanced since 2020 and early 2021. The worries about Bron guarding 3s when he for the most part is on the worst offensive player for the opponent are mute. Ham and the guys will figure these minutes out if we end up at a logjam, we movable assets then.
Finally, I love being apart of this fan base and will after Bron retires, but why we gotta call every guy soft or evoke Kobe’s name or mentality every time a topic like this comes up? AD has no issues playing the five, but he doesn’t wanna do it all the time to be fresh.
Good. Save it for the playoffs