Exclusive: Gary Payton's Michael Jordan-Scottie Pippen comp for Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves' Lakers comes with major questions appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
Gary Payton knows all about the pressure of playing for the Los Angeles Lakers . Payton played only one season in Los Angeles —during the 2003-04 season—but he did so with Kobe Bryant , Shaquille O'Neal, and Karl Malone, the NBA's first version of a superteam in the new millennium. That team was expected to coast to a championship, only to lose in the 2004 NBA Finals to an unheralded Detroit Pistons team in just five games.
Fast forward to today, and the Lakers are going through a major overhaul, seeing star LeBron James depart and choosing to build around the young duo of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves . There's a lot of uncertainty surrounding the Lakers, especially considering their top five players in total minutes during the playoffs have since departed. They've made moves for veterans such as Walker Kessler and Collin Sexton , but Payton isn't sure how all the pieces are going to fit together.
"I don't know, a lot of these guys are, they're just some players that that's going to fill in again," said Payton in a one-on-one interview about the Lakers. "Same thing with the Chicago Bulls (back in the 90s), you're building around Luka, that's what you're building around. Reaves is going to be your Scottie Pippen , so it's just like with us, with Seattle, it's me and Shawn Kemp, it's Luka and Reaves. They're building around their guys, and they're trying to put people around these dudes that is going to do their job, get a rebound, make a big-time shot, and then let these guys be Batman and Robin."
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Payton made reference to the Lakers trading former starting center Deandre Ayton and acquiring an alley-oop threat in Kessler, who previously starred for the Utah Jazz , but was limited to just five games last season due to an injury. He hammered home how they're completely building around the skill sets of Doncic and Reaves, two offensively gifted players who are lacking defensively.
The Lakers finished in fourth place in the Western Conference this season, but Payton is hesitant to commit to the idea of Los Angeles being that good without James.
"That's why they shipped (Deandre) Ayton out of there, they shipped him away because they got what they wanted to get," said Payton. "They're going to try to do a whole new process, they got (Marcus) Smart out of there. They're going to build around Luka and Reaves, and that's what they're going to do, and we'll see what happens. I don't know if they're going to be that team in the West. I don't know about that. I know they're going to have to prove that with these players that they're putting around them. They got two good ones, they got Luka, and they got Reaves. Let's see what happens."
The Hall of Fame point guard once again reiterates it's a lot of parts being put together, and he's unsure how they'll work together.
"It's a lot of question marks," said Payton of the Lakers. "They're putting a lot of guys together. Kessler is coming off of the injury, we don't know how he's going to come back. The guard Sexton, we don't know, he's gotten shipped around a couple of times. Is this going to be his fit? I think it's a lot of question marks. I think Luka has got to be back healthy, I'm saying Reeves has got to get back fully healthy. If all these guys get back healthy, we don't know what's gonna happen in the basketball season."
We'll see how the Lakers perform in their first season in the post-LeBron era, but it's hard to argue against what Payton is saying.
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