The LA Lakers are in limbo in the offseason with high expectations but fewer market moves to meet those. With the new HC, JJ Redick, on the block, the gold and purple brigade is embarking on a new era, but how would that turn out to be? Sure, they got LeBron James for another season at least; they’ve got Anthony Davis as well. But after a timid approach in the market from Rob Pelinka and Co., the equation on the court still looks puzzling ahead of the next season.

With Pelinka’s approach already deemed a failure, a solution came to the surface thanks to NBA insider and Lakers expert Jovan Buha. He analyzed Team USA’s playbook during the Olympics and how AD worked in it. And good for the Lakers nation, he came up with a plan that would enable the team to maximize their assets, including LeBron James and Anthony Davis. During the latest episode of Buha’s Block, The Athletic’s reporter explained how Team USA’s model can benefit the Lakers.

One of the biggest takeaways from the Olympic side was the use of Anthony Davis. His partnership with Bam Adebayo gave Steve Kerr‘s men height and rim protection with effective screening and spacing. According to Buha, the Lakers should take a page out of the Team USA book and pair AD with a big man.

“I think the Lakers can get more creative and just find new ways to use their offensive pieces around LeBron and AD and really just leverage Bron’s generational passing. And then, with Anthony Davis, I think he looked much better with another big man. And that’s something that we’ve known for a while,” Buha said.

Bam Adebayo was the big man complimenting AD during the Olympics. The Miami Heat C was hitting 3s, something completely new for him while being impressive at it than his franchise form. According to Buha, Bam, and AD can do anything defensively, setting up screens, and protecting the rim and, in the Lakers set-up, it will be hard to find a guy of that caliber.

The Lakers are already $10.7 million over the first apron of the salary cap, and pulling a big move in the current market looks unlikely. Unless they sacrifice some of their future picks and current assets, they’re saving for the post-LeBron era. Jaxson Hayes is one of those pieces deemed untouchable for the Lakers.

“As I’ve also said before on here, I’ve heard Christian Wood and Cam Reddish would be the two most likely guys to be salary dumped,” Buha said in a previous episode of his show. “But my understanding, the Lakers would prioritize keeping Hayes in comparison with Wood and Reddish.”

So how do the Lakers approach this from here on and get over the dilemma of keeping what they have or investing more?

Jovan Buha provides a solution to the Lakers’ problems

This is where Buha revealed his master plan for using the existing pool of talents of the Lakers. “This is where ideally they have a better defensive-minded center and a guy that could play next to AD for like 15, 20 minutes a night with the current roster. It’s probably got to be Christian Wood and maybe some Jaxson Hayes,” Buha added, before explaining further.

“I think you run into some spacing concerns with Hayes in AD where it almost forces AD to become a floor spacer, a jump shooter and you obviously want him playing closer to the block and diving and rolling and stuff.” Whereas Wood can be a floor spacer in Buha’s theory if he improves his shooting numbers.

Wood is a capable shooter in his own right, with a career shooting spread of 51.4–37.2–69.4 (FG–3P–FT) percentages. Last season was one of his worst seasons, 3-point shooting-wise, with only 30.7%, his lowest in the last 5 years. Hayes, on the other hand, had no success from beyond the arc last season but is 72% accurate in his field efforts. Keeping Rui Hachimura or Jarred Vanderbilt at 3, the Lakers can put AD alongside Wood or Hayes.

“All of a sudden you’ve got three 6’9″ and above guys, 6’8″ and above guys, shrinking the floor for opposing offenses, corralling the defensive glass, controlling the defensive glass, protecting the rim,” Buha concluded. And even if they, especially Wood and Hayes are not plus defenders or plus rim protectors, having that size advantage can ease a lot of burden from AD’s shoulders.

So even if the Lakers play it safe in the market and opt for what they have, JJ Redick gets a formula to replicate Anthony Davis’ role with Team USA. He previously made it clear how he intends to use the big man as a hub, similar to what the Nuggets do with Jokic. But when your options are limited, you just might want to have a few backup plans ready to combat the increased competition in the Western Conference.