5 Things: The Reality of My Surroundings

The 5 game road trip is proving to be quite the bulwark for over-hyped, too-early expectations for the Lakers this season. Whether it be a “didn’t show up with the right effort” game against the injury-ravaged Hawks or a “contender vs. pretender” showdown against the Thunder, the Lakers now have a laundry list of improvements and changes to make. Sometimes you need a reality check to help you grow, this 5 gamer can hopefully be that early season checkpoint.

1. Defense. We’ve come to the point where the warts and beauty marks have all had a chance to reveal themselves. 11 games in is still the realm of “very correctable issues” but it’s also the point where habits become narrative, good and bad, The lakers currently sit 22nd in the NBA in Defensive Rating at 117.3 (that would be the number of points allowed per 100 possessions). Contrast that with the Thunder who lead the league at 104.4 and the issues of where are team is versus where they want to be start to crystalize. Some of it is still guys finding a level of trust, getting everyone “on a string” doesn’t happen overnight, or in the abridged version of modern training camp or even over the first month or so. That kind of defensive skill and execution comes from a team-wide buy-in, having the right schemes for the right guys, and having the right guys. I’m still parsing whether the Lakers are running a garbage defense, have the wrong players, or are still finding a comfort zone with one another. Likely a little of all of it.
2. Turnovers. The Lakers are also on the wrong end of being a top-five team in terms of turning the ball over sitting pretty at 25th (15.9/game). This is especially concerning when Smart (2.4) Reaves (3.3) and Luka (3.9) account for over half of those/game at 9.8 TOs/game to 20.6 assists. It’s not so much the ratio that concerns me but that the majority of errors come from our 3 best distributors. Too many home run passes instead of just moving it to the closest, easiest open man. Too many batched lobs, and just silly dribbling into the defense when there’s no seam to exploit. Again, this is hard to pinpoint on if the issue is the players tuning out what the coaches want, just not executing a good plan, or not much of a plan other than “run a screen action here or there and hope”. Likely a little of all of it and we’re not great at getting back and stopping a score as we’re 9th in allowing points off of turnovers giving up 1,403 points off of 202 turnovers which I believe comes out to about 1.4 points/possession. We score 1.16 points per possession (middle of the back) and the Nuggets and Rockets lead the league at 1.25. A Laker turnover is one of the best scoring chances a team can have.
3. Ayton starting to show his issues. This road trip has not been kind to DeAndre. He’s either not getting the ball enough (only 5 FGA’s last night and in Atlanta, a trend in losses so far) or the kind of shots they set up for him aren’t really his shots. Ayton will forever be a guy who wants to stop and make a move. He’s not leaping to the rim with gusto a la Jaxson Hayes and he’s not an offensive fulcrum like Jokic or Embiid. He’s a light version of all of that because he has range, makes the pass if one is available and has a light touch in and around the basket. He’s getting outplayed by guys who are just out-working him which needs to change. He also is a liability when the other team goes small. Something LeBron’s return will hopefully help correct. In general, we need to set him up for success in ways that better align with his true skill set and roll the dice. Forever forcing thew lob into him isn’t working very well.
4. LeBron working out with South Bay, practicing with the team. I sure hope LeBron makes his season debut when we get back home, we need him in small ball line ups at the 5 and we need him to better balance the playmaking. All signs point to him ramping it up so here’s hoping we have no set backs.
5. Oh yeah, Nico (finally) got canned. There’s a world where we still have AD, maybe he’s hurt again and maybe not. Let’s assume he doesn’t detach his retina in practice against us but, in general, counting on him was always the biggest issue. For his folly, Nico Harrison lost his job. There’s no world where the mid-30’s version of AD will ever be better than entering his prime Luka. For all the issues facing the Lakers our problems are simple when compared to Dallas. So, one last time, thanks Nico. You made Rob look competent for once.