“Not Gonna Be A Superstar Guy”: Rich Paul Defends LeBron James And Luka Doncic’s Lackluster Defense

The Los Angeles Lakers, after a solid start to the 25-26 season, were served a piece of humble pie in December. They have a 4-6 record in the last 10 games, with glaring issues exposed in defense. And there doesn’t seem to be any signs of improvement either.

To understand how bad the Lakers have been at defending, it’s important to take a look at their rating for December. It was 122.4, second only to the Utah Jazz, who were 127.4. The Jazz are a 12-20 team, and not by any means, competing for silverware like the Lakers are.

LeBron James, 41 now, and Doncic have been criticized heavily for not defending too well. However, James’ agent Rich Paul feels The King and Luka Doncic shouldn’t be blamed for the Lakers’ defensive woes.

Paul’s contention: Superstars in a team are seldom the ones who carry defenses. “Normally it’s not the superstar guy that’s going to be your all-defensive guy,” he said on his podcast.

“Even in LeBron’s case, people get on him about the defense today, but we’ve seen it. If you have to depend on a 41-year-old, you’re in trouble anyway,” he added.

Paul’s claim is valid because no team in the world should rely on a 23-year veteran to be their best defender, no matter how good they were in their prime. As for Doncic, his defensive woes are no secret. And if anything, Doncic has been working harder than he did when he was with the Dallas Mavericks.

The issue with the Lakers seems to be how they are organized on both ends of the floor. JJ Redick has also called their offense out, insisting that the team has too many random possessions. On the defensive side of things, the likes of Marcus Smart, DeAndre Ayton, and other role players simply haven’t been good enough.

Scoring against the Lakers has become too easy, and James, in an interview, dissected the problem perfectly. “It’s the same thing I’ve said before, it has to be five guys on a string,” the Lakers star said after their defeat to the Phoenix Suns earlier this year.

“And these guys also made a lot of midrange, contested twos too, and those are part of our keys that we’re willing to give up. It’s the fastbreak points, it’s the second-chance points, it’s the open threes that we do not wanna give up,” he added.

In their most recent game, the Lakers lost 128-106 to the Pistons. The game put their defensive problems on full display. There has to be a solution, and it has to come soon if they are harboring any realistic hopes of playoff success.