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The Los Angeles Lakers made a bold move this week, trading Talen Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson to the Utah Jazz for Patrick Beverley. Before this Lakers trade, LA was a borderline play-in team in the Western Conference. After this trade, the Lakers are actually contenders again, all because Beverley is exactly who LeBron James and the Lakers need to jump back into the upper echelon in the West.
Why Patrick Beverly makes LeBron James, Lakers contenders again
There are both practical, numbers-based reasons and more esoteric reasons that Patrick Beverley makes LeBron James and the LA Lakers contenders in the West.
The biggest tangible reason that Beverley makes the Lakers better — and therefore contenders — is that he is a massive defensive upgrade from Russell Westbrook.
The Lakers gave up the third-most points (115.1) per game in the NBA last season. Only the lowly Houston Rockets (118.2) and Sacramento Kings (115.8) gave up more. A big part of this reason is how bad Russell Westbrook was defensively.
Westbrook tied for 135th in the league in defensive box plus/minus (-0.9) while Beverley’s 2.1 in that category puts him T-8 in the league for qualified players.
And offensively, the move to Beverley from Westbrook doesn’t cost that much in terms of offensive efficiency. Westbrook averaged 19.4 points, 7.4 assists, 1.0 steals, and 7.8 rebounds per 36. Beverley was 17.2/8.6/2.2/7.7 per 36. And Beverley puts up his numbers with a 16.1% usage rate compared to Westbrook’s 27.3%.
All this together should make the 2022-23 Lakers a more efficient offensive team and a better overall defensive team if they can stay healthy.
The numbers that Beverley provides will help make the Lakers a better team than last year. What he provides beyond the numbers, though, is what will make the Lakers true contenders.
Let’s face it, the Lakers as previously constituted were soft.
LeBron James is the NBA’s biggest superstar whose image is more important to him (and his bottom line) than almost anything else. Anthony Davis is a center who only wants to play power forward because it’s less physical. And Russell Westbrook likes to act like a tough guy, but his interactions through the years with real tough guys — Beverley most of all — show that he’s not.
Patrick Beverley is a lot of things, but no one has ever accused him of being soft.
Pat Bev is one of the most aggressive, pugnacious players in the NBA. Sure, it is sometimes to his detriment. The time he injured Westbrook in the 2013 playoffs gave him a reputation as a dirty player, and he has racked up too many technical fouls and ejections to list them all here.
While Beverley will have to be careful about getting in trouble in big spots on a contender this year, his mere presence will help the Lakers become tougher this year and make opponents think twice before taking liberties with LeBron and AD.
And last season, with young players like Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards, Beverley turned into a true leader for the first time in his career. He has become a force that can help teams — even less talented teams — get to the playoffs and compete hard. Adding that energy to a team with LeBron James and Anthony Davis will go a long way to improving the Lakers' fortunes next season.
The Patrick Beverley trade might not seem like a dramatic, needle-moving NBA deal. But he is exactly who the Lakers need to contend next season.
