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Even before Luka Doncic came to the Los Angeles Lakers in that stunning Feb. 1 trade, they were starting to turn their season around. The seeds for that turnaround were planted when they shipped off struggling and maligned guard D'Angelo Russell to the Brooklyn Nets for forward Dorian Finney-Smith in late December.
Finney-Smith gave the Lakers the type of 3-and-D wing they had lacked for the past few years. He has brought defensive versatility, not to mention grit, toughness and 3-point shooting, and he helped the team transform its identity.
He is the classic role player whose impact goes beyond his stats, or at least his basic stats. In fact, according to The BBall-Index Leaderboards tool, he leads all rotation players in defensive positional versatility. In other words, he has the most balanced defensive workload in terms of guarding all five positions.
Lakers head coach JJ Redick has looked to implement a defensive scheme that relies heavily on switching all season long. Early in the season, it didn't work because L.A. lacked effective defenders who could guard more than one position, but Finney-Smith's arrival helped change that.
The veteran wing also has the highest net rating while on the floor of anyone on the team at 10.6. He's the type of non-star any NBA squad needs in order to seriously contend for a world championship, as the Lakers are looking to do now that they have Doncic.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Dorian Finney-Smith leads the NBA in one advanced defensive metric
Continue reading...
Finney-Smith gave the Lakers the type of 3-and-D wing they had lacked for the past few years. He has brought defensive versatility, not to mention grit, toughness and 3-point shooting, and he helped the team transform its identity.
He is the classic role player whose impact goes beyond his stats, or at least his basic stats. In fact, according to The BBall-Index Leaderboards tool, he leads all rotation players in defensive positional versatility. In other words, he has the most balanced defensive workload in terms of guarding all five positions.
Lakers head coach JJ Redick has looked to implement a defensive scheme that relies heavily on switching all season long. Early in the season, it didn't work because L.A. lacked effective defenders who could guard more than one position, but Finney-Smith's arrival helped change that.
The veteran wing also has the highest net rating while on the floor of anyone on the team at 10.6. He's the type of non-star any NBA squad needs in order to seriously contend for a world championship, as the Lakers are looking to do now that they have Doncic.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Dorian Finney-Smith leads the NBA in one advanced defensive metric
Continue reading...
