This is not a surprise to me. I think too many Media and fans think they've got a real handle on MDA as just some offensive Coordinator that doesn't care about D. That was actually never true. He may not focus all of his attention on D, but that's not the same thing as not caring about it. As I pointed out before, the reason STAT and MDA had a falling out was over STAT's refusal to defend and rebound. MDA had players that defended all over the PHX roster and it was one of the reasons they got into fights with Kobe and the Lakers in the past. Still you have to have a defensive anchor to really excel on D, but MDA never had one until he got Tyson.
This Lakers team does present a challenge in how it's made. We've seen that MDA has had success in getting something good out of lesser players. He's gonna need to do the same in LA cuz the team isn't really deep.