Laravia: The Lakers’ perfect defensive puzzle?

On the NBA stage where the strong prey on the weak, those superstars are often attracted to the attention of fans, but from the team level and the background of the big base, they are often those players who work silently and play stably, which is the basis for the team's long-term sustained competitiveness.

Jack Laravia, a young foreign player who just joined the Lakers, is the player with this symbol. A character who is low-key enough but cannot be ignored.

As a 201-height forward player, Laravia has very ideal forward physical conditions and excellent enough skills, especially in offensive space pulling and multi-position defensive value, which is an important reinforcement puzzle for the Lakers during the offseason.

As a native American player, Laravia's career began at Wake Forest University. He performed at the peak in the 2021-22 season, averaging 15.5 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2 assists, and his three-point shooting percentage reached 38.4%. While showing his scoring potential, he also revealed the most highly praised space pulling ability and offense and defense awareness in the modern basketball system.

Thanks to his outstanding performance, Laravia was selected by the Grizzlies in the 19th pick in the first round in the 2022 NBA Draft. When he first entered the NBA, Laravia played more as a team and did not play much time.

Until he was traded to the Kings in early 2025, his playing time and mobile phones began to increase significantly, and he gradually showed more mature three-point firepower, with his three-point shooting percentage directly increased to 42.3%, and his personal average data was 6.1 points and 2.8 rebounds, step by step becoming a stable shooter point in the Kings offensive system.

Coming this summer, the Lakers took a fancy to his potential characteristics and opened a two-year contract to strengthen the team's offensive space and defensive depth.

Judging from the first four seasons, Laravia's technical characteristics are still quite obvious. His biggest advantage lies in his efficient three-point shooting and flexible defense. Based on the data, especially the bottom corner three-point shooting percentage is stable above 40%. In this key area of ​​modern NBA space tactics, he can effectively open up the defense and create breakthrough opportunities for his teammates.

In addition, his finishing ability in the penalty area is also quite stable. He relies on running without the ball and breaking through the gap cut to score. His inside shooting percentage is 50%. Although the output is not large, it at least proves his diverse threats on the offensive end. In contrast, he has relatively few shots in the middle distance position, mainly following the trend of modern basketball, focusing his scoring center in the three-point line and the basket, and his overall scoring efficiency is excellent.

As for the defense, high defensive IQ is Laravia's draft selling point. He can flexibly participate in assisted defense and defensive rotation in team defense, especially the multi-position switch between the third and fourth positions, helping the team consolidate the inside and wing defense lines.

Although explosive power and physical confrontation are not top-notch, good defensive judgment above level is enough to allow him to maintain his advantageous value on the defensive end. He also has stable contributions in rebound protection, which is of great help to the Lakers to improve their defensive counterattacks.

Of course, as a 23-year-old young forward, Laravia also has some shortcomings. First of all, his explosive power and speed are at the lower and lower level in the league, which leads to his sometimes disadvantage in defense when facing wing opponents with speed and explosive power. Especially when the defensive opponent starts to quickly change direction breakthroughs, Laravia's slightly slow lateral movement speed is easily broken through the front line by the opponent.

Another point is that although his ability to confront is not bad, he still often has problems of being suppressed when facing stronger 4-position big men. This not only limited his aggressiveness in the interior defense, but also affected his ability to compete for rebounds. This is a challenge for the Lakers, whose inside defense is already slightly open.

In addition, his ability to hold the ball on the offensive end is limited, and it is difficult to perform high-intensity individual singles or ball breakthroughs. Therefore, when he is guarded or his teammates have a poor feel, it is difficult for Laravia to become an offensive point for scoring on his own. He still needs to rely on his teammates to create offensive opportunities, or use the team system to cooperate with the team system to get scoring opportunities.

The last point, although he has good performance in team defense, he will occasionally experience defensive rotation loopholes due to misjudgment. This part also needs to be improved and improved through more game experience.

Referring to the data performance of the Grizzlies and the Kings in the 2024-25 season, Laravia averaged 18.9 minutes per game, with personal data of 6.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists, a three-point shooting percentage of 42.3%, and a real shooting percentage of 60.4%. For role players, such statistics are absolutely excellent in limited playing time. Especially in terms of three-point shooting percentage and real shooting percentage, Laravia performed well, which fully meets the offensive requirements of modern teams for space-based shooters.

Combining the Lakers' existing lineup and head coaching philosophy, Laravia's role should still be able to play many roles in the Lakers' team, from pulling the shooter in space to defending sharp swords in multiple positions.

basically does not occupy the ball on the offensive end, but more often it is to create space for the ball-holding offensive points through flexible running and outside shooting, especially the shooter's firepower at the weak bottom corner, which is the most important part of the team's three-point space.

At the same time, through the pass and cut cover, he can quickly cut to the bottom corner shooter position or the end point at the basket without the ball, putting pressure on the defender and becoming an additional choice for the team's diversified offensive system. As for the defensive end, he can not only play the Lakers' important role in switching defenses in multiple positions and assisting wing defenses, but also assisting in the penalty area defense and alleviating the pressure on the inside defense..

Of course, if we want to understand Laravia's team value a deeper level, we can compare him with the former high-quality 3D in the league:

Joe Ingles: the former Jazz's classic 3D, standing firmly with excellent defensive IQ and stable three-pointers;

Troy Brown: excellent athletic ability and multi-position defensive value, a template for modern rotation. In comparison, Laravia has better three-point firepower, while Brown has more obvious defensive elasticity;

Doug McDermott: an efficient shooter representative, with a slightly weak defense but a stable three-point offense. Laravia seems to have better defensive performance, excellent defensive awareness and coordination ability;

Referring to the above samples, Laravia basically combines the advantages of the above reference players, including Ingles' defensive ball dealer, Brown's defensive elasticity, and McDermott's three-point firepower. As long as we can continue to improve our various advantages, we will naturally have the opportunity to become an important rotation of the Lakers in the future.

The Lakers signed him with a low-paying contract, which not only retained the flexibility of salary space, but also increased the depth of team rotation and the diversity of offense and defense tactics. In the future, with the accumulation of experience and skills, Laravia has the potential to become an important puzzle in the Lakers' formation, helping the team move towards a new round of championship journey.