Can the Lakers Build a More Aggressive Perimeter Defense? Three Arguments For, One Against
Why the Lakers’ new defensive identity depends on three wild cards.
NBA training camps tipped off this week, a time when every team is optimistic and talking up tweaks for the season ahead. It’s also when we get the first real glimpse of what coaches want to do differently. In Dallas, Jason Kidd, with a brand-new front-of-the-bench staff, said the Mavericks will lean into a more democratic, flow offense shaped in part by lead assistant Jay Triano.
In Los Angeles, JJ Redick highlighted early offense as one of the main training camp focus areas, but also emphasized playing with more pace and force on the defensive end. He wants the Lakers to be more aggressive defensively, applying on-ball pressure with Marcus Smart and a recharged Jarred Vanderbilt unleashed on the perimeter once again, leading the charge.
That direction makes sense. We just watched a postseason where the Pacers and Thunder showed how far elite pressure at the point of attack can take a team. It’s also one of the league-wide trends I wrote about in detail in my NBA Trends series this summer.
Redick’s comments pushed this analysis to the top of my list, because it’s something I’ve been thinking about ever since the Lakers’ roster moves and my summer deep dives on Smart (full Smart profile here) and Jake LaRavia (full LaRavia profile here). Apart from the focus on injury absences and championship shape, this has been under the radar but also one of the more interesting Lakers training camp storylines.
Today’s highlights:
Defensive playmaking and pace
The other Marcus Smart disrupting skill (🎞️VIDEO)
Jarred Vanderbilt as the X-factor
Missing the solid, reliable presence of Dorian Finney-Smith
1-Defensive playmaking and pace
Redick and his staff used the motto ‘Be a banshee’ last season to sum up the frantic energy and constant effort they wanted to see. Jordan Goodwin, Jarred Vanderbilt, Gabe Vincent, and Dorian Finney-Smith were Redick’s main banshee guys, setting the defensive tone on the perimeter with hustle and on-ball pressure. In the playoffs, though, the Lakers shifted away from that model, with most of those banshees falling out of the rotation early in the series against the Timberwolves.
In the offseason, Rob Pelinka essentially swapped out Finney-Smith and Goodwin for Marcus Smart and Jake LaRavia, while also filling a key backline gap with Deandre Ayton. On paper, the 2025-26 lineup of high-motor, defensive-minded players — Smart, LaRavia, Vanderbilt, and Vincent — looks more skilled and diverse offensively, and hopefully proves to be more playoff-resilient than the prior iteration.
The trio of Smart, Vanderbilt, and LaRavia should give the Lakers much-needed defensive playmaking to improve on last season’s 18th-ranked opponent turnover rate. Paired with a typically low-turnover, Luka Dončić–led offense, that could give them an edge in turnover margin. Smart and Vanderbilt have hovered around a 2.5 percent steal rate for most of their careers, elite territory, placing them in the 90th to 100th percentile for their position. LaRavia’s steal rate sat in the 1.5–1.8 percent range in Memphis, but climbed above 2.0 percent during his stint in Sacramento. His quick hands and knack for creating deflections and steals remain an underrated part of his game.
Smart, however, is the real difference-maker. His career on/off splits show a clear and consistent pattern: defenses force far more turnovers with him on the court (which is not as trivial as it sounds, and I’ll get into that in the last section).
