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Lakers Championship DNA? 2024-25 vs 2019-20

By RC Nazemion

The city of Los Angeles and Lakers fans across the world have been living on cloud nine for the last month.

The Lakers are in the midst of an eight-game winning streak after defeating the Knicks. Fans and pundits are now wondering if we are on track for yet another Lakers championship.

There was a point earlier in the season when things looked very familiar. The Lakers were hovering between the tenth and seventh seed, and the same roster was making the same mistakes. JJ Redick was even unfairly compared to his predecessor, who shall remain nameless for superstitious purposes.

The team then made a couple of quality trades, resulting in Dorian Finney-Smith and Luka Doncic. They methodically transformed themselves into championship contenders by dominating the month of February, going 10-2.

With all of the championship aspirations and buzz surrounding this team, many have logically started to compare them to the 2019-20 team. It makes tons of sense.

One of the stats the 2019-20 team took pride in was their 57-0 record, with a lead going into the 4th. While not undefeated, this Lakers team is now 35-2 when entering the 4th with the lead. Dominant.

The last Lakers championship squad still lives fondly in the minds of the Lakers faithful, but the current iteration may take the cake. When it comes to 2024-25 vs 2019-2020, which team was more dominant?

Talent and Roster Construction 2024-25 vs 2019-20

For all intents and purposes in this article, when I refer to the 2024-25 team, while it’s not the entire season, statistics will be loosely based on the last 20 games, as this truly is this year’s team. If you were to take a look at this 2024-25 team, you would think that while talented, on paper, does this roster work?

The talent is unquestionably there when you look at LeBron, Luka, and Austin Reaves, among others. However, the team also has a few holes, such as needing another good defensive guard or legitimate center in the five-spot.

When you look back at the 2019-20 Lakers championship team, one of their strongest qualities was their team balance. The backcourt was filled out with talented wing defenders who could shoot the three ball well, while their frontcourt was more predicated on physical dominance down low.

Although the talent may be dispersed differently between position groups on these two rosters, I think the overall collective talent matches up quite nicely—just differently.

– THE COACHING STAFF

A factor that isn’t always brought to the forefront in these types of conversations is coaching. Most will first point to players. Coaching most certainly makes a difference, as Lakers fans have seen over the last two seasons.

When JJ Redick was initially hired, there were definitely some question marks—not from me, but from many. Redick brought zero coaching experience to the table outside of coaching his sons’ youth basketball teams.

Thanks to his incredible knowledge of the game and some help from the best assistants in the league (Scotty Brooks and Nate McMillan), he’s found his way just fine.

The Lakers team of 2019-20 also had some fantastic coaching. Frank Vogel’s defensive schemes and adjustments, specifically at halftime and in the playoffs, were marvelous. Vogel’s assistant coaches were great as well. Jason Kidd and Lionel Hollins were essential to the ring that season.

When you compare the staffs, however, they’re not very close. Kidd hadn’t yet found success in Dallas and was coming off of two failed stints as an HC in Brooklyn and Milwaukee. The current Lakers staff, however, is filled with legends of the 2000s-2010s.

Scott Brooks coached the young Thunder teams to incredible success and also found some success coaching John Wall and Bradley Beal. McMillan has also succeeded as an HC, with a career-winning percentage over .500.

The JJ-led staff has yet to see playoff opportunities to show off their talents, but from what we’ve seen, I’m giving the edge to this year’s coaching staff.

– The Players

Both of these Lakers teams followed the same general layout: have two all-world-level talents and surround them with pieces that help them thrive. In 2019-20, LeBron and Anthony Davis were surrounded by defensive demons.

Players like KCP, Alex Caruso, and Danny Green, mixed with their big man room of Dwight and JaVale, allowed LeBron and AD to roam on defense, leading to easy offense in transition.

Now, we have LeBron and Luka Doncic, again surrounded by defensive demons. The difference is that the others on this team are better individually than many of the 2019-20 players.

In 19-20, LeBron and AD led the team in PPG, both averaging over 25 PPG. After that, there was a steep drop-off, with the next highest scorer being Kyle Kuzma with 12.8 PPG. This year’s squad is different.

After LeBron and Luka (both averaging 23+ PPG), you see players like Reaves averaging 18.9 PPG, Hachimura averaging 13.3 PPG and even rookie Dalton Knecht averaging 9.1 PPG, more than Caruso and Danny Green and almost on par with KCP (9.3 PPG).

While the accumulation of talent is different between the two teams, the overall level of collective talent is pretty similar at the end of the day.

Playstyle

With both teams being so incredibly dominant, it can be difficult to distinguish the differences outside of play style. However, when it comes to how both teams operate on offense and defense, they are quite different.

In 2019-20, head coach Frank Vogel had a clear vision based around LeBron and AD. On defense, their goal was to pressure the offense out on the perimeter and eventually drive them into the paint, where McGee, Howard, and, of course, Davis would be happily waiting to send shots into the third row.

Their defensive prowess led to them leading out on ultra-successful fast breaks. The 2019-20 Lakers ranked 2nd in the league in fast break points and 3rd in points off turnovers.

While still ultra-effective, this year’s Lakers team plays a much different style.

– Offense

As much fun as it was to see LeBron and Anthony Davis nearly dismantle teams offensively on their own, that was the offense in totality.

As previously mentioned, the defense of the 2019-20 team often led to easy transition opportunities. Much of their offense was predicated on the success of their top-tier defense.

When the team was tasked with the half-court offense, though, it was as simple as giving the ball to LeBron, bringing AD up to set a screen, and if one of them didn’t score, someone would be open on the perimeter.

The 2024-25 squad, respectfully, puts that team to shame offensively.

JJ Redick has brought the Lakers into the modern era offensively, thanks to his incredible basketball mind. Gone are the days of standing around and spamming P&R. In its place is a pace and space offense where guys are constantly moving off-ball, and said ball is moving just the same.

The 2019-20 team finished with a 112.0 ORTG, which was good for 11th in the league. Again, the team was mainly predicated on their defense.

The 2024-25 team, over the last 20 games, has boasted a 120.0 ORTG. That ranks 6th in the league. The scary part is that I’m not sure this is their final form.

Since coming to Los Angeles, Luka Doncic struggled initially, and rightfully so. Coming off the toughest injury of his career, Doncic struggled early on with his three-ball as well as his turnovers. In the last five games or so, he’s expectedly found his groove, which should terrify the league.

This team’s offensive potential with two supercomputers in James and Doncic is off the charts, and they have the edge over the 2019-20 team.

– Defense

Comparing the defensive capabilities of these two teams is where the conversation gets fun. Both the 2019-20 team and this year’s team exhibited their strength by cohesively dominating teams on the defensive end.

While both squads had a blueprint for success, the schematics couldn’t be more different. As previously mentioned, the last championship team had a gameplan to pester players out on the perimeter and drive them into the waiting arms of our long and athletic frontcourt.

This year’s squad, however, is much more built for constant switching and rotations. With players like Doncic and Reaves, who won’t sniff All-Defensive teams, there is an urgency to ensure neither gets left on islands.

Luckily, thanks to JJ Redick’s defensive schemes and players like Vanderbilt, Finney-Smith, and Vincent, the moments where they have been left on an island have been few and far between.

In 2019-20, the Lakers finished the season with a 106.3 DRTG, which was good for third-best in the league.

The 2024-25 Lakers have boasted a league-best 108.6 DRTG over the last 20 games. The 2020 squad is a few points ahead of them. However, you also have to take into account that teams score more and more points with each passing season.

The 2019-20 team hung their hats on the defensive end. While they were fantastic, I believe the movement and versatility of this year’s defense would create more problems.

So who would win?

In some Laker fan dream-like illusion, let’s say these two teams were to meet. Who would come out on top? The funny thing about these two rosters is that I think they’re ironically both built to stop the other.

One would think that the frontcourt size of the 2019-20 team would create issues for this year’s squad, but I’m not so sure. They’ve recently held Karl Anthony-Towns to 11 and 12 points in back-to-back games. They also held Nikola Jokic to his lowest shot attempts of the season (7).

You could also say that the 2019-20 team’s wing defenders would give our ball handlers like Luka, LeBron, and Reaves trouble. I don’t know if that is the case. Luka, LeBron, and Reaves have seemingly solved every problem they’ve been given.

The fact that there are three of them also helps. If one has a bad game, it’s unlikely the other two will as well.

All in all, it may sound silly, but it comes down to AD vs Luka. Yes, Davis is a beloved Lakers legend, but in the short time we’ve seen Luka, he’s done something AD could never do. Luka can single-handedly win games. Sure, Davis can as well in spurts, but his nature is to be the most elite Robin.

At the end of the day, Luka’s pairing with LeBron creates a duo the league has never seen. One pairing we’ve seen is player A’s assisting skills benefiting another player’s scoring.

We’ve also seen one star take the weight of the offense while the co-star takes the defense. We’ve never seen two stars together who can both do everything.

Thanks to Luka, not only do I think they’d beat the 2019-20 squad, but I think a title is coming.

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RC Nazemi was born with a lifelong passion for the NBA and specifically the Lakers, and he's chosen to utilize his writing skills to share that unbridled passion with you, the fans. Based in Coeur d'Alene, ID, he's currently finishing up a Bachelors Degree in Mass Communication and Media Studies with Arizona State University, and he's looking to expand to a larger market and advance in the sports broadcasting/journalism world someday soon.
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