There has been a lot of discussion around the Los Angeles Lakers’ offense and how it will operate under new head coach JJ Redick. Perhaps most important is how Redick will utilize LeBron James in his 22nd NBA season and Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal has weighed in on how what feels the star should be focused on this season.
Passing and court vision are arguably LeBron’s greatest strengths and there are only a couple of players in the history of the league who have been his size with that level of court vision. The best of that bunch is Magic Johnson and that is who Shaq believes LeBron should be emulating at this stage of his career.
In a recent episode of The Big Podcast with Shaq, the Hall of Famer said that LeBron should let Anthony Davis and Austin Reaves carry the scoring load while he focuses more on creating and keeping the rest of the team involved, like Magic did during his Lakers career:
“If I was LeBron, being that I already have all the records, I would pass it to AD. I would demand AD — because listen, LeBron can still do what he do, but, ‘I don’t need to have the ball all the time. I don’t need to score all the points. So, AD I need you to score all the points. Austin Reaves, you can be No. 2. I can just be the old Magic Johnson-style point guard and keep everybody involved and just keep this thing going.’”
Johnson had an amazing ability to control the game without needing to score all of the time and LeBron has that same capability. In Shaq’s eyes, James doing this would help elevate the rest of the Lakers and Davis has shown he is capable of being the go-to guy on offense.
This idea might not match the plans that Redick has for the Lakers as he has spoken about Davis being the hub of the offense while taking that pressure off James and allowing him to operate off-the-ball more. But there will certainly be many opportunities for LeBron to be that top-tier facilitator everyone knows him to be.
LeBron James still confident in Lakers’ ability to compete for championships
LeBron James being the true point guard for these Lakers might be their best chance at elevating the rest of the team and getting them near championship contention. That is the ultimate goal as always and despite the Lakers’ lack of offseason moves, LeBron remains confident that they can contend.
The Lakers superstar said that as long as he and Anthony Davis are on the roster he feels they can lead the team to success while adding that he feels they aren’t far off from being at that championship level.
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