68 million in 3 years! The Lakers lost the golden opportunity to trade Reeves. What is Pelinka doing? Don t defend

Since entering the NBA as the No. 1 pick in 2018, Ayton's round usage rate has been 21% and his true shooting rate has been 61% in 398 games so far.

Take Jokic as an example - the career round usage rate is 27%, and the real shooting rate is 64%.

Of course, Ayton cannot do what Jokic can do inside and outside, and the defense difficulty faces is not that great. But there are still two very good points of explanation:

First, the end of the basket. Career shooting accounts for 39% and shooting rate is 77%. Obviously, like all big men, the basket is also Ayton's main ending area, the difference is that efficiency is at the top level.

Second, China Investment. Career shooting accounts for 20% and shooting rate is 46%. Yield + quality, combined with 49.2% assisted power. Just because of Ayton's mid-range shot, he wanted to extend the version of Leonard - a hard solution without the ball and a hard solution to the persistence.

It can be said that Ayton's arrival is a great reinforcement for the Lakers' barren inside. Of course, this refers more to the offensive end - the defensive end, and Ayton's real positive and negative value of his career defense is -0.2. Ayton's poor defense lies more in attitude than in body shape.

If no adjustments are made, the Lakers' starting points in the new season will be Doncic, Reeves, James, Hachimura and Aiton. Obviously, none of the five people are good at defense. Speaking of this, it is not difficult to understand why most media and fans of the Lakers trade Reeves.

Why do you want to trade Reeves?

First of all, tomorrow's Reeves will definitely jump out of the contract and pursue a large contract with an average salary of more than 30 million. From another perspective, tomorrow, Reeves has the risk of leaving the Lakers without getting anything.

Secondly, Reeves is the most cost-effective trader at this stage. Potentially, the Lakers' combat effectiveness will be greatly improved after the transaction.

At the same time, according to the NBA China official website, Pelicans Herbert Jones reached a three-year, 68 million contract renewal. What are the characteristics of Herbert Jones?

is obviously a defense. In the big win, the best defensive player in the 23-24 season ranked fifth, Gobert, Davis, Vinban Yama and Adebayo were selected as the first defense of the year. In terms of small data, the opponent's shooting rate was limited from 46.2% to 42.5% in the 24-25 season with 236 interference shots. In famous scenes, Halliburton, Harden and Cunningham's shooting rate is less than 33%.

With Jones completing the contract renewal, in my opinion, the Lakers also missed the golden opportunity to trade Reeves.

Reason 1: Location + Reconstruction. With CJ McCollum being traded to the Wizards, the Pelicans are strictly speaking at the second position, which is one of them. Secondly, when Zion is at risk of being traded, it is obvious that the Pelicans are likely to rebuild.

Reeves' expiration contract is attractive to the Pelicans regardless of whether it is rebuilt or not.

Reason 2: Contract. Originally, Jones had two years of contract, so there was no need to renew the contract in advance. But now it has been renewed and it has been 3 years. Obviously, the Pelicans regarded Jones as a non-sale product.

To sum up two points, "golden opportunity" means that the Lakers were originally very likely to exchange Reeves for Jones for this to improve the team's defensive end. More importantly, Jones should be the player who can get the highest limit for Reeves - a defensive team.

I don't know what Pelinka is doing. Do you really need to defend in the new season? It depends entirely on the offensive end, so the game will be interesting.