Lakers face nightmare scenario if defense doesn’t improve next year
Defense wins championships, right? As currently constructed, the Los Angeles Lakers better hope that is not the entire truth.
The Lakers will head into the new 2025-26 NBA season with a defense that projects to be rather underwhelming. Jovan Buha was not shy about sharing how challenging the present situation may look. The Lakers reporter delivered thoughts regarding the unit on a recent episode of
Buha said, "Is the Lakers having a top defense sustainable? I will say no. ... For nearly 60 games of the season, the Lakers were a bottom 10 defense. Then, for 24 games, they were the best defense. They're closer to being a bottom 10 defense than the best defense."
The Lakers reporter believed the ceiling of this current group would fall somewhere between the 11th to 14th best unit on that end. Buha thought they would need another move to truly break into the top 10 best defenses in the NBA next season.
Lakers need a big upgrade before championship contention
The assessment here is more than fair. It also gives major credence to the recent rumors that have been circling around the Lakers.
Marc Stein was the first insider to come out and suggest Rob Pelinka and the front office are loosening their stance on being cautious and allowing themselves more aggression with a win-now approach. Dan Woike backed him up entirely.
Both of those men suggested the goal for the Lakers was clear: add a two-way wing. The emphasis on the rumored target being one who can raise the ceiling of the team is important. In particular, that boost should come on the defensive end.
There should be little doubt that a team with Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves is going to be a great unit on offense. Anyone saying otherwise does not deserve to be taken seriously.
However, balance is key. The defensive aspect of the floor has continued to be integral to championship teams over this past decade.
In the last 10 NBA seasons, eight of the 10 champions that hoisted the Larry O'Brien at season's end had a top 10 defensive rating during the regular season. The lone exceptions were the 2023 Denver Nuggets and the 2018 Golden State Warriors.
In the case of the Warriors, they turned it on during the 2018 NBA Playoffs, catapulting themselves towards the top unit in the postseason. Likewise, the Nuggets had the fourth best defensive rating in the 2023 NBA Playoffs.
The Lakers need stoppers. Otherwise, they will be under threat of being unceremoniously carved up when it matters most.
Warriors Get Warning From Ex-NBA Player on Jonathan Kuminga
As much as the Golden State Warriors want to remain drama-free next season, they have a big elephant in the room with Jonathan Kuminga’s contract.
With that, the former NBA veteran Kendrick Perkins is convinced that the Warriors aren’t going to get what they need out of Kuminga, considering the circumstances.
“It's going to affect the locker room that's trying to win or have intentions on winning the championship,” Perkins said, regarding the Warriors’ stalemate with Kuminga.
“I don't know if Jonathan Kuminga is watching NBA Today, but they don't want you, dog. They don’t value you, because if they did, you wouldn’t be going through this. It started last season. Steve Kerr showed you how he felt about you when you were out of the rotation during the Play-In Tournament, in the first round against the Rockets. I understand Mike Dunleavy is now running things in the front office … but Jonathan Kuminga wasn’t a Mike Dunleavy pick; that was a Bob Myers pick.”
In 2021, Kuminga landed on the Warriors as the seventh-overall pick. He was a product of the NBA G League Ignite experiment, skipping the NCAA after attending high school in New Jersey.
Kuminga fired up a 70-game run for the Warriors as a rookie in 2021-2022. He even played in 16 playoff games, averaging 5.2 points in 8.6 minutes during the Warriors’ championship run.
For the past four seasons, Kuminga appeared in 258 games for the Warriors, collecting 48 starts. While he started a career-high 46 games in 2023-2024, that wasn’t the start of an uptrend. Kuminga was limited to just 10 starts last season.
Still, he averaged 24.3 minutes per game, which allowed him to put up impressive numbers, scoring 15.3 points per game on 45 percent shooting from the field. He also accounted for 4.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game throughout the year.
Being that he’s 22 and the hunt for his biggest payday yet, Kuminga will need to produce ahead of a potential free agency run next summer. The thought of that has convinced Kendrick Perkins that Kuminga could be an issue for the championship-hopeful Warriors.
“When you look at this situation, it’s going to cause turmoil in the locker room if you bring him back at $7.9 million because he’s going to go out there and play individual basketball,” Perkins added.
“It’s hard for me to tell a young guy not to go out there and get his numbers because I know he wants to get paid. At the end of the day, you have one guy who’s going to be playing agenda basketball. You’re going to have a team that’s led by three vets, probably three future Hall of Famers, that’s going to be leading their team and preaching agenda-free basketball. There’s the problem.”
