The Damian Lillard saga was the dominant storyline of the 2023 NBA offseason. It took three months of back-and-forth drama before the Portland Trail Blazers struck blockbuster deal that sent Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks as part of a three-team trade.

A few days after the Lillard trade, the Boston Celtics took away some of the Bucks’ shine by acquiring defensive stalwart Jrue Holiday. Back in June, the Phoenix Suns made a huge splash by acquiring Bradley Beal from the Washington Wizards. Many basketball pundits have already penciled the Celtics and Bucks in the Eastern Conference finals, and the Suns are the popular pick to come out of the Western Conference.

While all the Dame drama was going on, the Los Angeles Lakers were busy restocking their shelves with the same pieces that reached the Western Conference finals.

Austin Reaves (four years, $56 million), Rui Hachimura (three years, $51M), D’Angelo Russell (two years, $36M), and Jarred Vanderbilt (four years, $48M) all re-signed with the Lakers. General manager Rob Pelinka also added free agents Gabe Vincent, Taurean Prince, Jaxson Hayes and Cam Reddish, and drafted guard Jalen Hood-Schifino. The biggest piece of a potentially championship was the commitment to Anthony Davis. The Lakers and Davis agreed to a three-year, $186 million contract extension that keeps Davis in a Lakers uniform through 2028.

With Davis as the anchor and LeBron James coming back for his 21st season, L.A. has arguably the deepest roster in the NBA, and it’s a nice problem to have if you’re Lakers head coach Darvin Ham. During the Lakers media day aired on Spectrum SportsNet, Ham said he welcomes the healthy competition during training camp.

“I’ve told my team internally,” Ham said, “we don’t want to compete from a mental standpoint saying, ‘I’m better than this guy or I’m better than that guy.’ Compete with your work habits. Compete with submerging with yourself in the information and picking it up and executing in what it is that we’re trying to give to you guys.”

Ham continued: “Naturally, you’re going to have guys going at each other. That’s always healthy as well. But the biggest thing is to make sure that we’re competing in the right areas. When we do put these jerseys on and toss it up and play against the 29 other teams that we can still all be on the same page.”

The theme of the 2023-24 Lakers season is “run it back.” The organization feels it now has the right combination of players to compete for the franchise’s 18th NBA title.

“We have a speed lineup. We have a small ball lineup. We have a powerball lineup from 6-8 to 7 feet that we can put out there,” Ham said. “We’re super duper excited on what we can do with this lineup.

“But first and foremost, everybody has to know that everybody has to be on the same page. We have to trust one another, support one another. Everyone has to have both hands on the rope pulling in the same direction.”

The key to a successful Lakers season hangs on the broad shoulders of AD.

When he’s healthy, AD is one of the 10 best players in the world. He could easily make a strong case for best defensive player. His stellar defense during the 2023 playoffs — he had the No. 1 defensive rating by a wide margin — was a major reason why the Lakers were able to knock off the Memphis Grizzlies and Golden State Warriors. And if AD can replicate those 2023 playoff performances, he could be in the running for MVP in 2024.

Davis said he’s grateful and thankful for the Lakers for being committed to him, and having enough faith and trust in him to be the face of the franchise beyond the LeBron years.

“I owe it to them to go out every night and put my body on the line for this organization,” he said.

The biggest roadblock for AD and the Lakers are the defending champion Denver Nuggets, led by their MVP Nikola Jokic. The Lakers are still salty on how their playoffs ended last season as they were swept by the Nuggets in the WCF. The sweep has given AD plenty of motivation not only to get another shot at Jokic and Nuggets, but to also put his name in the MVP conversation. He added some MMA workouts and boxing training regimen during the offseason in preparation for wrestling matches in the paint with The Joker.

“Whether I’m in [the MVP conversation] or not, it’s the expectation of playing to that caliber because I know it’ll benefit the team. I am my biggest critic,” Davis said. “I am on myself after every game, even in wins. You can’t control wins and losses. You can control energy and effort. This year, I want to come out and build on last year, and hopefully let everything play out, I’ll be in that conversation.”

For the past eight seasons, no one has been able to solve the Golden State Warriors’ perplexing puzzle. Until now.

The four-time NBA champions were finally dethroned as the Los Angeles Lakers eliminated the Warriors in six games in the 2023 Western Conference semifinals. The Lakers became the first Western Conference team to beat the Warriors in a playoff series since Steve Kerr was hired in 2014. The size and length of the Lakers were simply too much for the small-ball Warriors, and the catalyst for the NBA’s top-rated defense was Anthony Davis.

The Lakers’ versatile center was nothing short of sensational against the defending NBA champs. Davis was able to roam freely because the Warriors don’t have a big man who requires AD’s constant attention. The Lakers’ suffocating defense forced the Warriors to play inside the 3-point line and limited their shot attempts by securing defensive rebounds.

First-year coach Darvin Ham brought to L.A. many of the defensive principles he learned from his time with the Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks. But the scheme only works if it has a defensive stud patrolling every inch of the hardwood.

Davis is the chess piece Ham frequently uses to check every opponent’s best move.

“The Lakers have a great defense,” said Golden State coach Steve Kerr, whose team was held to 10 points below their season average. “Davis at the rim was a huge obstacle. Not only a shot blocker but a guy who takes up a lot of space and cuts down a lot of passing lanes.”

The Warriors struggled from the field in the close-out game, shooting just 37.9% from the field and making just 13 of 48 3-pointers. Davis attempted only nine shots in Game 6 and finished with 17 points, but his imprint was all over the court. He pulled down 20 rebounds, had two blocks and two steals. His presence was felt throughout the series.

“To me the series came down to games 1 and 4,” Kerr said. “The Lakers outplayed us in key stretches in both games. That’s really the difference. The better team won.”

If one sequence summarized Golden State’s struggles against Davis and the Lakers, look no further than the final frantic minute of Game 4 in L.A. With the Warriors down by a point at 102-101 with 36 seconds left in Game 4, Steph was isolated against AD at the top of the circle with 36 seconds on the game clock. It was only fitting the game would come down to the game’s best shooter against the best defensive center in basketball. You couldn’t have scripted it any better.

Curry was ready to seize the moment, like has for the better part of the decade as the ring leader of the Warriors, but Davis was more than up to the task.

Curry starts the play with a few crossover dribbles. Davis pokes the ball to disrupt Steph’s rhythm and the Warriors guard was forced to retrieve the loose ball and restart the play. Curry then drove left, but AD cuts him off. Curry resets and tries to drive to his right. AD cuts him off again, and forces Curry to take a difficult one-legged, step-back jumper contested by the 7-foot-6 wingspan of Davis. The shot rattled off the rim.

“I pride myself on defense,” David told Spectrum SportsNet reporter Mike Trudell.

“They wanted, obviously, the switch with me and I took that personally,” he continued. “I know what he gets to like his stepback 3 and I just wanted to move my puppies. As my man, coach would say, I just wanted to move them puppies and keep him in front and make him take a tough shot and that’s what I did.

“He’s a helluva player, there’s no shot that he can’t make. He takes all the tough shots and he makes them. I just wanted to make it tough on him and make him shoot over a contested hand and pray that he missed, cuz he’ll make those. And he missed, got it back, and I just wanted to defend again and make him miss again and we ended up getting the rebound. Big time defense from me, but big time rebounding from our guys.”

The Warriors would get another opportunity with 26 seconds left after Draymond Green secures the offensive rebound. He fires the ball back to Steph, who gets another shot at shaking Davis. This time, Curry settles for a 30-foot 3-pointer that he had to put extra arc because of Davis’ length. The shot fell short, bouncing off the front of the rim. Lonnie Walker IV, who had a huge fourth quarter for the Lakers coming off the bench, grabs the rebound and gets fouled. Walker made both free throws, setting up for the final Davis defensive stand.

Down 104-101 and needing a 3-pointer, Golden State coach Steve Kerr called for the “hammer play” to free up a 3-pointer shooter in the corner. The play was a staple of the San Antonio Spurs offense during the Tim Duncan era, and it’s a play the Warriors have run many times. Unfortunately for Kerr and the Warriors, AD and LeBron James were familiar with the play as well. As soon as AD realized what the play was, he peeled off his man and jumped Klay Thompson’s corner route and intercepted Draymond Green’s pass.

Even though the Warriors would get another short possession after Curry grabbed a loose ball off a jump ball, but inexplicably threw the ball away with a time-out left in his pocket, the Lakers grabbed full control of the series thanks to their superstar center wearing No. 3.

“That’s a big part of the series for sure. Davis is dominant,” Kerr said about the Lakers’ big man.

Davis has been an absolute monster on defense during the 2023 playoffs. He leads all players in the postseason in every major statistical category on defense. He’s No. 1 in blocks (3.3) and rebounds (14.1), and has contested the most 2-point shots through the first two rounds of the postseason. He is also the only center who ranks in the top five on deflections.

AD’s disruptive hands are a big reason why the Lakers own the best defensive rating since the All-Star break. The addition of forwards Jarred Vanderbilt and Rui Hachimura have afforded L.A. more athleticism and size up front to go with Davis’ unique ability to guard one through five.

Despite his defensive credentials, Davis remains an easy target for critics. He still doesn’t get the respect he richly deserves from the media and pundits.

When the NBA announced its All-Defensive Teams, there was one glaring omission. Where’s Anthony Davis?

The first team was comprised of Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr., Cleveland’s Evan Mobley, Milwaukee’s Brook Lopez, Chicago’s Alex Caruso, and Milwaukee’s Jrue Holiday. All of them were bounced from the playoffs either in the first round or in the play-in tournament. Jackson Jr., the 2023 NBA defensive player of the year, was matched up with AD in the first round and it was a landslide. Davis was the more superior defender and far more impactful than Triple J.

LeBron let the world know who he thinks in the NBA’s best defender. “He’s the best defensive player in the league,” LeBron told TNT’s Chris Haynes.

“I think the league knows it,” LeBron said. “There aren’t many guys who can protect the rim at all costs and switch out on point guards like Steph [Curry]. We trust AD guarding anybody in the league.”

The Los Angeles Lakers lost 10 of their first 12 games in the 2022-23 NBA season and the vast majority of Lakers fans and some members of the basketball media are losing it.

It’s a rough time for the Purple and Gold. The team is struggling on the court, the value of crypto (team plays at Crypto.com Arena) is eroding faster than Twitter stock, and the hated Boston Celtics are getting close to winning a championship. Lakers Nation is in total panic mode, looking anyone to blame. Much of their venom has been directed at guard Russell Westbrook and general manager Rob Pelinka. They want Westbrook traded and they want Pelinka fired.

Even basketball beat writers appear to going the extra mile to pin the losses on easy targets — and bagging on Westbrook is a low-hanging fruit. Some basketball pundits actually thought the Lakers are a playoff contender if they can find a taker for Westbrook and his $47 million expiring contract. NBA insider Mark Medina said he expected the Lakers to make a deal for Westbrook before training camp starts. Medina was definitely surprised to see Westbrook at the start of training camp.

L.A. Times writer Dan Woike seems to be enamored with the Westbrook narrative as well, finding all sorts of ways to shed light on the former NBA MVP’s shortcomings. In one of Woike’s recent stories, he focused on a couple of bad Westbrook turnovers (and they were bad) in a short stretch in the second quarter that allowed the Sacramento Kings to cut the Lakers lead in half. Maybe the three baskets the Lakers gave up in the first quarter were the sole reason why the Kings won 120-114.

Westbrook’s poor shooting and high turnovers are well documented and well established. It’s like saying Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars was a terrible moment. What’s not so obvious to average basketball observers is the two biggest issues for the Lakers this season are their two leaders: LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

Davis has been unreliable and unavailable for much of his NBA career. Outside of an out-of-body experience inside the Disney World bubble in 2020, Davis keeps disappointing. AD has yet to play more than 62 games since becoming a Laker. Even when he’s on the court he’s MIA in crucial moments. At times, AD looks tired and timid. Whenever he hits the deck, he grimaces in pain while holding some body part. He’ll go through stretches in the second half where he won’t even take a shot. There have been too many fourth quarters when Davis went completely silent. It took a heart-to-heart conversation with first-year Lakers coach Darvin Ham to light a fire under AD.

“Had a real good conversation with [Davis] after our last game, our last loss [against the Kings],” Ham said following the Lakers’ win over the Nets that snapped a five-game losing streak. “And he just said, ‘I got your back, Coach.’ “

Before the contest at home against the Nets, Ham said it was on Davis to remedy the lack of touches on his own. “Just him demanding the ball,” Ham said. “It starts with that.”

If you’re a member of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team, you shouldn’t have to be told to demand the ball. You tell everyone: scrap whatever we’re running because the next play will go through me.

Can you imagine Kobe Bryant being told to demand the ball? Kobe would have demanded the ball from tip-off.

Davis is obviously not the face-of-the-franchise player the Lakers thought he could be. Anyone who has played basketball at any level knows that if the game is close, winning and losing comes down to your best against the opponent’s best. When the opposing team goes on a run, your best player takes charge and stops the bleeding. Regardless of what defense the opposing team runs at you, if you believe you’re the best player on the court, it won’t matter. You’re determined to score, defend, or grab a rebound and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Sometimes being The Man requires something extraordinary, like scoring 40 points and grabbing 15 rebounds or scoring consecutive baskets down the the stretch to close the show. That’s what a No. 1 guy does. AD is capable of doing extraordinary things. How badly does he want to be the best? That question remains unanswered.

The other big problem is a bit more complicated.

LeBron is a basketball living legend. He may not be the same player he was three seasons ago when he led the Lakers to a title, but he still has plenty of pull on and off the court. However, Father Time is winning and LeBron’s hour glass is close to empty. He’s clearly no longer the best player in the game. He’s no longer an MVP candidate. He’s no longer the incredible physical force who can pick up an entire franchise and carry it over the finish line. He’s still got some flicker in his flame, but the fire burns out a lot quicker now and his body is breaking down more frequently.

LeBron turns 38 in December. After 20 super seasons, he finally looks human. Despite the obvious decline in his game, the Lakers gave LeBron a two-year contract extension that runs through 2025. By that time he’ll be 40. But the Lakers understand cutting off the LeBron cord isn’t that simple. They need him to be the marquee outside the arena. They need him to be the box office superstar fans are still willing to pay to watch even though he’s past his prime.

LeBron’s shooting numbers this season are way down compared to his career standards. His 23% 3-point percentage is one of the worst in the entire league. He’s taking more shots (averaging 21.9 field goal attempts), which hijacks the offense and disrupts flow. When LeBron commented earlier in the season that the Lakers were “not a team constructed of great shooting,” he was probably including himself in that group of non-shooters.

And if you think LeBron’s offensive numbers are below the line, his defense is even worse. He’s guarding shadows.

LeBron has two big boxes to check before riding off into the sunset. He wants to break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time scoring record and he wants to play with his eldest son, Bronny, in the NBA. And the Lakers might be willing to give him one of those wishes.

The other underlying Lakers problem is their relationship with Klutch Sports Group. The sports agency founded by LeBron’s close friend Rich Paul employs half the Lakers roster. Owner Jeanie Buss, Pelinka and the Lakers’ top brass need to carefully navigate this relationship because any misstep could result in losing Klutch clients in the future.

The reality is the Lakers are now rebuilding. Hiring Ham was a clear message that the Lakers are prioritizing developing players and acquiring younger talent. Pelinka was abundantly clear that he’s not going to give up future draft picks just to get rid of Westbrook. “You have one shot to make a trade with multiple picks, so if you make that trade it has to be the right one,” Pelinka said during media day. “So we’re being very thoughtful around the decisions on when and how to use draft capital in a way that can improve our roster.”

LeBron and Davis led the Lakers to a championship in the 2020 bubble season. And that’s no small feat. It cemented their Lakers legacies. But winning a championship in 2023 with LeBron and AD is just a pipe dream. LeBron and AD are simply not good enough to save the Lakers from having another disappointing season. It’s time for the Lakers to start focusing on the franchise’s own timeline instead of bending the knee to LeBron’s timeline.

First impression is the best impression. For his first press conference as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, Darvin Ham hit it out of the park. Now, all he has to do is execute the plan.

Ham was introduced as the 28th head coach of the Lakers on June 6. The 48-year-old former NBA player and longtime assistant with Mike Budenholzer said all the right things while entertaining the mostly L.A.-based basketball media. He addressed the two biggest issues facing the franchise: 1) what to do with Russell Westbrook, 2) how to get the best out of injury-prone Anthony Davis.

If Lakers fans want a hint on what a Darvin Ham-led Lakers team will look like, think Milwaukee Bucks minus the grit.

Lakers Nation should be more than satisfied with Ham’s answers. Westbrook appears to be satisfied with the hiring. He attended Ham’s introductory presser at the Lakers training facility in El Segundo and nodded in approval when Ham talked about what he thinks of the former league MVP, who was the target of ridicule and criticism and got unfairly blamed for the Lakers’ 33-49 season.

“Don’t get it messed up. Russ is one of the best players our league has ever seen and there is still a ton left in that tank,” Ham said in his news conference televised on Spectrum SportsNet.

He continued: “I don’t know why people tend to try to write him off. I’m gonna approach him like I do every player I’ve ever encountered. We’re going to talk about our running habits with the ball, without the ball, and again, the team. The rhythm of the team and trying to establish a rhythm with LeBron, Russ, AD, and again, share the load. Defensively and offensively. Defensively is where you’re gonna see us make our biggest leaps and bounds. We have to commit to the defensive side of the of the ball or we don’t have a chance to do anything. The offense won’t even matter if we don’t get stops.”

Ham basically confirmed that the Lakers intend to bring back Westbrook despite reports — and fan urging — that they’re trading him. Ham said he has already had private conversations with Westbrook and they both agreed on how what it’ll take to make this partnership work.

“Russ and I had some really, really great one-on-one convos, man, and the biggest word I think that came out of that, those discussions, was sacrifice,” Ham said. “I’m going to expect him to be the same tenacious, high-energy player that he’s been all his entire career. A lot of now may have him without the ball in his hand. Most of it now may have it on the defensive end. But, again, we have to sacrifice. There’s no achieving anything without all parties sharing the load, sacrificing instead of one-on-one.”

Ham came from a Bucks system that prioritized defense. He had the opportunity to work with former defensive player of the year Giannis Antetokounmpo and second-team all-defensive guard Jrue Holiday. Ham would love nothing more than to recreate the Holiday defensive model in Westbrook.

Ham told ESPN’s Malika Andrews that he wants Westbrook to be a “pit bull” on the defensive end and channel most of his boundless energy on that end of the floor. “I want [Russ] to set a tone defensively for our team,” Ham said. “I want him to get back to guarding at a championship level.”

Ham won a title in 2004 as a member of the Detroit Pistons, and he was Budenholzer’s lead assisant during the Bucks’ title run in 2021. Ham’s championship pedigree makes him a qualified authority figure when it comes to building a winner, and he clearly identifies defense as the top priority to get the Lakers back to being title contenders.

Last season, the Lakers fell to the bottom of the league in terms of defensive efficiency (ranked 21st out of 30 teams), which is a stark contrast to where they were two seasons ago when they were a top-five defense in their championship run inside the Disney World bubble in 2020.

L.A. underwent a major facelift in 2021-22 and lost its identity. The team greatly missed defensive stalwarts Alex Caruso, Danny Green, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. The addition of offensive-minded players Malik Monk, Carmelo Anthony, and Kendrick Nunn didn’t pan out. Monk and Anthony provided plenty of firepower on offense, but defense wasn’t their forte. Nunn collected $5 million for sitting on the bench. He missed the entire 2021-22 season due to a bone bruise in his knee.

Ham is tasked with rebuilding the oldest roster in the league while developing some of the younger players who showed promise like Austin Reaves, an undrafted rookie who worked his way into the rotation.

“My goal is continue with the development of our younger players, and make those guys comfortable,” Ham said. “Everything has to be a team effort. If there’s mistakes made I have to be able to coach [James, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook] like I do the rest of the roster. We have a saying, facts over feelings. Once you see the film and it’s a fact that you missed your assignment, then that has to be pointed out. If I can’t point that out to one of our big three, then the last man or someone in our rotation won’t take what we’re doing seriously. It has to be consistent across the board.”

Getting the role players to fall in line might be the easiest part of the job. The hard part will be convincing his three highest-paid players to buy into what he’s selling.

“LeBron is going to be LeBron, Russ is going to be Russ, but we need consistency out of Anthony Davis,” Ham said. “We need him to be healthy, we need him to be in a good mental space, and we need him to be as consistent as possible, back to playing that championship-type basketball.”

Keeping Davis healthy and asking for consistency might be Ham’s greatest challenge. It’ll be more difficult than getting Westbrook to play defense or managing LeBron’s workload.

Bill Belichick, the six-time Super Bowl champion head coach of the New England Patriots, famously said that “dependability is more important than ability.” There’s no question about Davis’ ability. Few in the league have his combination of size and skill. But he has proven on multiple occasions that he can’t stay healthy for an entire season.

Davis has played in only 76 games the past two seasons due to an assortment of injures — from his shoulder to his knee to his ankle. And the last time he played in more than 70 games was in 2018. How can the Lakers lean on Davis if he’s not available to play?

Ham knows that the Lakers can’t get back to being a championship-level team without Davis. He says the four-time All-NBA defender is the “key” to how the Lakers want to play on defense.

“We’ve all seen what can happen when he’s healthy, when he’s playing at a high level, when he’s in a good rhythm,” Ham said of Davis. “We saw it in the bubble. His skillset, size, versatility, defensive acumen, his relentlessness. His ability to give multiple efforts defensively is key. It’s going to be the foundation of the type of standard we set within the Darvin Ham era.”

Ham plans to implement a four-out, one-in style on offense. It’s a similar approach the Bucks ran with Antetokounmpo as the primary option. Giannis and AD are both capable of sliding to the center spot, but they’re not the same type of player. Giannis brings the physicality to the party. He overwhelms opponents with his size and strength, often bullying his way to the basket. Davis prefers to stay above the dotted line and likes to shoot over his man instead of playing through his man. The Lakers could alter the offense a bit to fit Davis’ preferred style, but the team may have to look for a legit 5-man to play alongside Davis to keep him from having to do all the dirty work.

When a reporter asked Ham if he felt pressure taking on such a high-profile gig on a high-profile team that’s obsessed about raising championship banners, he had a great response.

“I grew up in Saginaw, Michigan. I was shot in the face by accident, April 5, 1988,” Ham said. “You go through something like that, it is going to do one of two things: It’s gonna make you fearful or fearless. It made me fearless. I don’t feel no pressure. It’s basketball.”