The Los Angeles Lakers boosted their potential this summer, acquiring a few talented players who can greatly assist Luka Doncic and LeBron James in the new season.

But will it be enough, or will the Lakers continue to struggle because of a very specific and troubling problem?

Speaking on SiriusXM NBA Radio, Jovan Buha talked about the Lakers’ problem with defense and said it needs to change.

“On paper, this should be a top 10, if not top five offense. You’ve got Luka, Austin, LeBron, Deandre, Rui—even going into Marcus Smart, Gabe Vincent. You’ve got six, seven guys who could drop 15+ any given night. To me, it’s the defensive end where, if you’re looking at Smart, Gabe, Jarred Vanderbilt as your best perimeter defenders, it’s solid, but when you look at what OKC has, what Minnesota has, what Houston has, I don’t think it’s in the same class. They’re still at a deficit on the defensive end, and that’s where I think they really need to find an upgrade,” Buha said.

“They are still at a deficit on the defensive end”@jovanbuha breaks down the Lakers’ defensive woes with @TermineRadio & @Jumpshot8

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Doncic, James, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, Deandre Ayton – all of them could score many points for the Lakers in the new season.

Fans are excited to see each of these players, and more, go off on any particular night and light up the scoreboard.

But that won’t fix everything that plagues the Lakers because their defense has been in trouble for some time.

The loss of Anthony Davis really hurt them, and even the addition of Ayton won’t clear them of all their defensive issues.

Some of their players are great when it comes to blocking and guarding, but others are really lacking, and that will be a problem when they are competing against the best teams in their conference, such as the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder.

Buha thinks the Lakers need to fix this as quickly as possible, but it’s not clear how they will do that.

Perhaps the right player becomes available at the trade deadline, or maybe next summer will offer them a chance to acquire a defensive threat.

Until then, the Lakers will likely have to get by with the team they have now.

It’s not a bad group by any means, but there are still serious concerns about how this squad will defend its opponents.

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