5er: Tale of Two Teams

At the halfway point we’ve seen a lot of different looks from the Lakers. Multiple starting lineups, multiple rotations off the bench, all sorts of injuries and lots more questions than answers. Let’s start with at least one solid answer.

1) Luka is the future. For all my issues with Luka’s defense and carping to the refs I still make the trade for him 10 out of 10 times. He needs to keep discovering when to empower his teammates vs. getting himself going. He tries on D and needs roster help on that end. There is no over stating his ability to impact the game. He needs players that better compliment him on both ends.

2) LeBron James is a wonder and also a huge question mark over the next season or two. The last 3-4 games James has looked himself on both ends, making smart athletic plays, timely scoring all while continuing to blaze trails in every NBA record book. The problem here is there is no future for the team with his salary on the roster, at least at this amount. The LeBron question will look over and dominate the summer but now that’s he’s gotten his legs under him he is right back to playing at an All NBA level.

3) The front office needs to figure out a vision and an identity they’re striving to build. They have a roster built more for Darvin Ham, they have a coach that is more wonky with concepts than charismatic managing personalities and team built for neither of its superstars while mulling retaining a future 3rd superstar. None of it works very well together. The front office needs to truly start building a Luka or Luka/Resves team. If there are current players that don’t fit that mold they need to be aggressively moved simply to open up the space needed to try other players out. I don’t see much action for us on the trade front but if you can move any of these guys simply for some second round picks that needs to strongly be considered. The league is getting younger, we are not. It’s a problem we don’t have an obvious answer to.

4) If Reaves is the future we can’t keep Rui. I like Rui but he lacks aggression and is too content to lay back and simply do what’s asked. However, if there is indeed a ceiling at which the Lakers aren’t willing to go past to keep Austin then they need to trade him. Losing Rui for cap space to keep Reaves is acceptable, losing both for nothing would be an unmitigated disaster.

5) We could use some health luck. If guys are sitting with minor aches and bruises they need to stop. We’re on the verge of loaf managing (not a typo, I straight wrote loaf managing) our way into the playin and a difficult summer. Get tough, Lakers, that starts with Luka.