Yang Yi: Don’t panic when the Lakers are eliminated, and the designation will be more brilliant next year

"I never thought that the next sentence would pop up in my mouth: Rudy Gobert ruled this game. He was dominant at the basket, and I was happy for him... I really didn't want to say these words, but that's the truth. Gobert is the ruler of this game."

When the biggest baguette in history, Shaquille O'Neal, said the above while pretending to be nauseous in TNT's "Inside the NBA" halftime show, you should be able to feel the value of Gobert's performance that he was convinced. The Lakers did a lot right in the last game of the series. They limited Anthony Edwards, who scored 43 points in the last game to 5 of 19 shots, scored only 15 points, and scored Jaden McDaniels in 18 minutes to 6 fouls. Randall played only 9 minutes in the first half and made three fouls last season's best sixth man Naz Reed scored only 3 points in the whole game. They abandoned Hayes' small lineup throughout the game and used their high-intensity round save to force the Timberwolves to shoot 7 of 47 shots (by the way, the Rockets made 0 of 27 three-pointers in the tiebreak game, and the three-pointer in that game was 7 of 44 shots, which was more accurate than the Timberwolves in this game).

They only did one wrong thing, that is, they failed to stop Gobert.

Timberwolves led 59-49 in the first half, Gobert scored 15 points and 8 rebounds on 7 of 10 shots, including 4 frontcourt boards, which was a pillar to build an advantage for the team. When the game ended, the stat turned into an exaggerated 27 points, 24 rebounds and 2 blocks. The Timberwolves shot 11 more baskets than the Lakers, mainly because they grabbed 18 offensive rebounds, nine of which came from Gobert. After only 14 points in the first four games, he finally seized the opportunity in the fifth game of the series, beat the Lakers in the inside, ending the series.

I saw many friends say that James, who has a maximum lineup of only 206 cm, and Gobert, who is 216 cm tall, should perform like this, which is undoubtedly a matter of course. Mann's 39 points and Kleber's 8 three-pointers are still vivid in his mind. In the past few years of playoffs, the five foreign lineups not only did not allow Gobert to play, but instead often beat Gobert, and were even forced to let the opponent's head coach press Gobert on the bench. Everyone’s five-for-one can target Gobert, why can’t the Lakers’ five-for-one?

There are two reasons for this, the most obvious reason is that the Lakers' core player, one-on-one Gobert, is actually not very efficient. In the 30-second short video, the tall Gobert is often shaken by the top ball holders, becoming an embarrassing background board, and being ridiculed by fans as a "Magino line of defense" that is expensive but always becomes a joke. But the basketball game was 48 minutes. Although those rounds that were defended by Gobert would not be cut out, they really made the Lakers lose the ball.

From the scene, the Lakers are very happy to let their ball holder play Gobert alone. When Reeves successfully played Gobert alone, he would shout "He can't defend me." James would threaten "to beat you out of shit" after clashing with him. The quasi-kill three-pointer that Gobert shot in last year's Western Conference Finals was still vivid in my mind, let alone Doncic. But when the series reached Game 4, everyone had already discovered that this was not the case: James' shooting percentage was 4 of 13 shots, Reeves made 5 of 15 shots, and Doncic not only made only 5 of 14 shots when he hit Gobert, but also made 5 turnovers.

There is another reason that is not so obvious, but it is actually more deadly than the first reason, that is, the Lakers' five-in-one outside the country is actually not accurate enough. In this series, only Hachimura Sui in the Lakers team had a three-point shooting percentage of more than 37%. Vincent couldn't make a shot, Vanderbilt couldn't make a shot, Goodwin didn't dare to make a shot, and Kneckett didn't dare to use it. When Redick sent Claiber, who hadn't played for a second in the regular season, the quality of the Lakers' shooter was evident.

It’s not that the Lakers don’t want to call Old Conley down, but their shooters are often not enough to transfer Gobert from the basket. Then in order to solve this problem, they had to call Gobert upwards and be defended by Gobert, thus falling into a vicious cycle.

With the last 5 minutes left in the game, the Lakers were still only three points behind the Timberwolves. In the last five minutes, Gobert interfered with Doncic's three-pointer without the ball, James' three-pointer with the ball and Reeves' breakthrough layup. When the boomerang finally flew back to his hands, the Lakers' season ended like this.

Gobert is no longer Doncic's toy. On the contrary, the three Lakers' top players have become Gobert's prey in the process of hunting Gobert. The most wise hunters often appear in the posture of prey, and the wise men are sincere and do not bully me.

Before the start of the playoffs, no one thought that the Lakers would be a championship team this year, but both in the United States and China, the media and fans generally believed that they would not fall in the first round of the playoffs. All ESPN experts have won the Lakers in the forecast. The Lakers were full of arrogance at the beginning of this series, and even though the Timberwolves won a big victory in the first game of the series, they were still arrogant. When the Lakers won the second game of the series, everyone thought they had overcome the small turbulence in the series and were back on track. Until yesterday, the Lakers actually lost the game, some people believed that the Lakers could turn the tables 4-3 because James had really done it before. No wonder after the game, Edwards was sarcastically shouting "Lakers in five" on his way to the Lakers' locker room.

Lakers fans don't need to think wishfully that "The Lakers are just unlucky and have met our opponent the most in the playoffs." In fact, this series just exposed something that everyone knows: the Lakers are not strong enough.

This is the most unexpected and reasonable result. The Lakers did not win because someone performed outrageously, not because someone broke out inexplicably, but because the dark thunder buried before had exploded. Everyone knows that Doncic is in poor health this season due to injuries and training, everyone knows that the Lakers' shooters are not strong enough, everyone knows that the Lakers' substitutes lack scoring points. When the Lakers return Mark Williams, everyone also knows that the Lakers' inside line is not reliable, but everyone wishfully believes that these problems will not break out, at least they will not break out in the first round.

And we all saw that as Doncic's gastrointestinal problems knocked down the first domino, the series of explosions raised the most shining fireworks.

Judging from the results, the Lakers' season did not end as expected. But in my opinion, this result is only part of the process, and Lakers fans have no need to worry about the failure of this season. After all, this is an unexpected year when Doncic has just gotten halfway. With the end of the season, the Lakers have finally had a whole offseason to build a lineup around Doncic, James and Redick. As Lakers President Robert Pelinka said after the February trade deadline: "Our lineup is far from a finished product. The team will gradually build a lineup that suits Reddick's basketball philosophy in the future."

For the Lakers, this season has confirmed three good news: Reddick may lack experience, but he has also proved that he has real material and has received unanimous support from the locker room; Doncic still played a 30+7+5 series averaged with a gastrointestinal debuff, with a real shooting percentage of up to 60.8%, proving that He is still a top five star in the league, only looking at offense may even be the top three; some people have complained about James' performance, but in fact he is still in good shape this season, and he averages 24+7+8 per game in 70 regular season games, and can still play 25+9+5 in the defense against the Timberwolves. He even scored 10 steals and 9 blocks in this series. His hard-solving ability has indeed declined, but if he covers his name and forgets that he is James, you will believe that this player is completely capable of being the second in command of a championship-level team.

To sum up, the Lakers' main problem is not the core group, but the lack of support from role players. Dong Zhan’s performance in the regular season can provide them with a guarantee, and in the playoffs, these problems are quickly exposed. The problem with the Lakers' lineup is already very obvious: Doncic may be a real offensive genius. He can handle both 5 and center pick-and-roll on the offensive end, but on the defensive end, he needs a large player who can really use it to wipe his butt; except for DFS, there are 3 players in the Lakers without D, and there are 3 players, and there are 3 players in the Lakers who are not D, and there are 3 players, and they urgently need to continue to make up for the players; Reeves is not qualified as a single player in the playoffs without the help of a whistle, and there are obvious weaknesses on the defensive end; the depth of the lineup is seriously insufficient, and the Lakers lose points in the fourth quarter of each game, which can be said to be exhausted, and there is also a scene where Redick doesn't change people in the entire second half. The movable chips on the Lakers include, but are not limited to, first-round picks in 2031, pick swaps in the next five even years, young Kneckett and expiring contracts of more than $70 million (Reeves, Dorian Finney-Smith, Hachimura, Kleiber and Gabby Vincent). James also has a 52.6 million contract option next season. If he chooses to execute the contract, the Lakers' salary will remain below the No. 1 rich line, which means they can also get a $5.7 million middle-class special.

It is a dream to rely on these things to target Durant or Antetokounmpo, but it is easy to be a good starting center (such as Ayton, Dalow or Clarkston), a qualified forward 3D (such as Cameron Johnson or Quentin Grimes), a substitute who can contribute 15 to 20 minutes (such as Bruce Brown or Eric Gordon).

It seems that Lakers fans can relax. This year is likely to be the worst year for the Lakers in the next few years. They still have a long way to go uphill, singing your passion, stretching out your hands, and letting me embrace your dreams. The Lakers will most likely be better tomorrow.

Then there are only two last questions that seem unremarkable: How many years can James remain in this state? When will he get tired of it all and choose to leave the NBA? He has earned enough, and money will not be the reason for his decision. I believe that the most closely related to these two questions should be the Lakers' operations this summer. After all, James has clearly expressed his meaning in a post-match interview:

"I don't know. I don't have an answer for the future. I will sit down and have a good talk with my family, my wife and my team. You don't know what the team's roster will look like next year, how competitive we will be. After all, this is also a business, and I do have a lot to consider."

Throughout NBA history, James may be the best player to promote management strengthening through his contract situation. As his career goes to his twilight years, it may be time for the roles of both labor and capital to switch. In order to give James a little more motivation to continue, it is time for Pelinka to operate this summer.

If he operates well enough, I think James may not mind a slight salary reduction.