The Los Angeles Lakers came out of the All-Star break on a roll, winning five games in a row after blowing out the San Antonio Spurs on the road 116-112. The Purple and Gold have definitely turned things around after a putrid December where the team lost nine straight games. Since the turn of the new year, the Lakers have a 17-10 win-loss record.
Lakers fans have seen the young core grow up significantly since the start of the season. While that may sound like a typical fanbase thing to say, eye test and statistics prove that premise to be accurate.
Indeed, the core now display smooth team basketball, where individuals rarely care for personal stats, often setting up one another for scoring opportunities. This is in stark contrast to the start of the season where passing was involved, but it was mostly them taking turns in isolation plays.
The Lakers currently have an offensive efficiency rating of 103.8, 23rd best in the league. It’s still bleh, to be sure, but it’s an improvement since the team hovered around 29th and 30th earlier in the year where everyone looked confused on offense.
Los Angeles has maintained its solid defensive habits, netting a 105.3 defensive efficiency rating, good for 11th in the entire league. This is obviously a huge improvement from last year’s putrid effort on D where the Lakers were dead last in DefRtg, netting 110.6.
One doesn’t need statistics to know how good LA’s defense is right now. Just watch any Laker game and you’ll see how well the players switch and run close outs, and when opponents do get to the basket, guys like Julius Randle, Brook Lopez, heck even a guard like Lonzo Ball offer very decent rim protection. Of course, there’s still the occasional blunder, but the D has been mostly solid.
Now what does all this say? It should be noted that the Lakers, a team with a 60 year history of winning basketball, has fallen on hard times of late, missing the playoffs for four (will most likely be five counting this year; more on that in a second) consecutive years — the most in team history.
It’s a bleak stretch for sure, and even as recent last year, despite drafting a number of promising young talent, it was quite difficult to watch Laker basketball without wanting to gouge your eyes out. It was so horrendous that fans, including myself, have started to legitimately question if, not when, the Lakers will ever climb back to the top of the basketball world. This year’s squad has changed that outlook and has brought back something that was long gone in the purple and gold hearts 💜💛 of fans — hope.
Brandon Ingram looks to be a solid two-way player, showing flashes of brilliance both on offense and defense. His growth has been remarkable because you can literally see his performance getting better with each game played. Every individual statistic has improved, and Ingram is starting to prove that he can and will be the Lakers’ go-to scorer in years to come.
Funny thing is, I can vividly remember being disappointed back in October after reading articles about all the work Ingram put on all summer, only to have a crappy preseason to show for. “Another disappointment *le sigh*“, I thought. Booooy, am I happy I was dead wrong.
Lonzo Ball is one special dude. People have defecated on the kid all year because of his ugly shooting form (I was a shooter in my glory days, can confirm it’s butt ugly), “lousy defense”, poor half-court and pick & roll play, and of course his loud-mouthed dad. The hype surrounding Lonzo was unfair to him because it made people think he would go the LeBron James route and be great from Day 1. Truth is, it’s rare for rookies, especially in this era of basketball to immediately become the star LeBron was to begin his career.
Nevertheless, Lonzo had a solid start to his career despite his shaky shooting. His court vision and passing abilities lived up to the hype. His rebounding skills have been stellar, considering that fact he’s only 6’6″, averaging 7.1 rebounds per game (RPG). Ball’s “lousy defense” was anything but. He bodied up opponents well, guarded off-ball opponents solidly, is adept at swiping/deflecting the ball (1.6 steals per game), and offered tremendous rim protection, averaging around 1.0 block per game (BPG) — again this is a point guard that’s doing that.
While Lonzo is at his scariest in transition, his half-court play hasn’t been as bad as previously advertised.
Although he was slowed down by injuries in the middle part of the season, Lonzo has come back strong, and was a big part in three of the Lakers’ four post-All Star game wins (he sat out the second of a back-to-back), averaging 12 points, 6.8 rebounds, 7.3 assists, 2.5 steals per game, shooting 14-of-22 (64%) from three.
Julius Randle is a beast. The Lakers don’t deserve him for how they treated the kid at the beginning. But he held his own despite the off-court drama that surrounded him (and none of it was his fault, really) and thankfully as the season went on, LA realized his true value and utilized him the way he should be.
Randle is your prototypical small ball center with the ability to initiate offense with his playmaking skills and his switchability (that may not be a real word lol) on defense — that is being able to guard any opponent regardless of how bigger or quicker they are — is invaluable in the modern NBA. He can bully his way to score at the rim and grab rebounds on both ends of the court.
The caveat here is that Randle is set to become a restricted free agent in the offseason. The market for Randle-caliber type players is dry this year, with numerous not having enough cap space thanks to the spending-spree by teams in 2016 (looking at you, Mitch Kupchak). Still, Julius is bound to get offers from other teams. His hometown team Dallas Mavericks, which incidentally are among the few teams with ample cap space, expressed interest in him. Hopefully the Lakers will do everything they can to keep Randle in the purple and gold jerseys.
Kyle Kuzma was relatively unknown at around the Draft. I’ve never even heard of Josh Hart until after his name was picked 30th overall. But here they are, two key contributors now for the Lakers and will definitely be a part of the team’s future plans.
Kuzma looks to be a prolific scorer. He’s already shown he can score from a variety of ways — catch and shoot, creating shots off the dribble, transition, you name it. His individual defense needs some work but overall he’s bought into the team’s defensive scheme and has been doing well switching and rotating.
Josh Hart is known for his defense and rebounding. He’s a small guy who takes on much bigger dudes and can hold is own and grabs so many rebounds amidst tall trees that teammates have started calling him “Josh Barkley”. Grit like that deserves a lot of credit. Hart is also the team’s best three point shooter, can handle the ball and cuts to the rim nice. It just sucks that he fractured his left hand, which means his season is likely over.
Granted, Kuzma and Hart are older rookies because they played four years in college, but this doesn’t diminish what they’ve done for the Lakers this year and will be key cogs in the years to come.
All these guys, plus a still developing Ivica Zubac (who is starting to become a decent backup center) will be a force to reckon with in the years to come if they continue their upward trajectory.
Fans right now are hoping for a playoff spot, but it is highly unlikely. The Lakers currently are 11th in the West and the 8th to 10th spot are occupied by the Clippers, Jazz and Nuggets. For the Lakers to climb up to number 8, not only will they have to win most of the remaining 21 games they have on their schedule, those three other teams have to lose most of theirs. In short, LA’s destiny is not controlled by them alone. Luck has to play a part. Barring some miraculous meltdowns, it’s tough to see thr Clippers, Jazz and Nuggets lose much considering how they’re currently playing.
And thats okay. The Lakers need to focus on developing the young core. If a miracle happens and they make the playoffs, great. If not, I wouldn’t be as down as I was the past five years. Not with the promise these kids have shown.
patrickkennan.com 