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If he doesn't, then you have Dwight or Javale in at center, right? So then what's gonna happen on offense when Bron and AD run PnR? The defenders will just switch, because Bron is a 34% career shooter from 3 and AD is a 31% career shooter from 3-- they're not worried about the quick trigger being pulled. So now you have the rolling man's defender in the paint, *and* you have Dwight/Javale's defender in the paint, because if they go outside, that defender isn't leaving the rim for anything. So now, if Bron (or AD, for that matter) drives after the PnR, he's running into, at minimum, two bodies. We saw that a healthy amount last night.
Now, if AD plays center, you throw one of the bench guys into the lineup (none of whom played especially well last night, but all of whom are good 3 point shooters traditionally). Now the floor is spread, the paint is more open, and Bron/AD aren't gonna run into extra bodies as often. Plus, it'd force AD to play down low for rebounds, because whenever he wasn't directly inside for boards, Dwight and Javale were getting beat for rebounds by goddamn Patrick Beverly.
Dwight is nothing more than a body in space at this point in his career, and Javale is mostly just good for erratic offensive glass crashing and weak side shot blocking. AD is such a massive upgrade at center over them in today's NBA that it's absurd.
The Lakers are gonna have defense problems all year, that just is what it is. But playing AD as a 4 isn't going to help on either end of the floor imo-- at least not against good, well-coached defensive teams like the Clippers. My movies: http://russellhainline.com
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