The Los Angeles Lakers are but months removed from winning an NBA championship in a season that features the shortest turnaround between season’s end and beginning in professional sport history. So it’s understandable that there will be some lulls, loss of foci and low energy showings. The important thing is keeping pace with the rest of the western conference. Home court will matter in the playoffs, there will be some degree of fans in the stands come July. Or at least there ought to be, time will tell, I s’pose.

1. LeBron’s triple-double. One night after finding his scoring touch LeBron found his 1st triple-double of the season. This is greatness we are watching on a nightly basis. A greatness few athletes have ever been able to find, let alone sustain to the ridiculous degree James has done. I’ve reached I point I got in Kobe’s epic season of scoring. the season he outscored the Mavs all on his own, the season he scored 81. It’s a place we should all get to with pro athletes more often. It’s a place of trust acknowledging that they have put in more time working on something than I will ever understand, that they are the professional and I am an enthusiast. LeBron is one of the best ever, he’s already on the NBA Mount Rushmore, time we all gave him his damn respect. I’m there now, I wasn’t always.
2. Anthony Davis finding his range. Two games after shooting zero threes AD found his touch from three in this one. AD went 4-6 from beyond the stripe in a 34 point outburst that staved off a tenacious Spurs squad. He had 7 offensive rebounds that helped give us an edge in points in the paint. He had 5 dimes, second only to LBJ’s 10. While Davis is certainly not on point defensively same goes for the entire Laker team. We traded defense for offense, athletic mobile bigs for a plodder (who ultimately does. more on both ends of the court) so the defensive slippage is understandable. AD will be the one to help right that ship but early on, as long as we’re outscoring teams, I’m OK with this look. If the D looks like this in March/April I’ll be a little more worried.
3. Kuzma not pushing. Maybe it’s the security of a new deal, maybe it’s natural growth as a professional, maybe it’s winning a ring. Or a little of all those things. But one of the things I’m loving is Kyle finds a hot streak, rides it, cools off and just keeps playing hard. So much good comes from playing hard, trying to do the right thing and just living with the results. Will he ever be an All Star? Maybe, maybe not. But he’s an NBA champ and he’s playing like a 10 year vet. He’s not pushing the possession in his direction he’s just making plays and good ones at that.
4. Win the glass, win the game. This team isn’t stopping the other team from scoring much, yet. Which is fine, it just means the path to victory essentially rests in one place: the rebound battle. We make a win very likely when we outwork other teams on the boards. The offensive rebounding was exceptional, helped us to a +16 advantage in FGA and we did a good job limiting the Spurs to only 85 shots on goal to our 101. Which we needed because they shot better than us for the game, shot more free throws and played us pretty evenly from three. The D is coming around but until it does I feel good about our chances if we do our work on the glass.
5. Coach Popovich’s hair deserves it’s own blog. I want him to go full Gandalf. It’s epic; it’s like he’s going to audition for Odin in a Netflix series or something. As a fellow dirty hippy…I love it. Don’t give up the Samsonian power lurking in those locks, Pop!

Well that was a nice first day of 2021. Let’s keep it going. If I had my way indeed.

Well…we made it. 2020 is officially in the rear view mirror, fading from view but never our memories. So much happened last year that it’s mind-boggling to look back at the different stages the year went through. From January and February where the Lakers started to look like the dominant championship team they ultimately became, to Kobe, Gigi and several others passing from this plane in the tragic crash, to the botched handling of COVIUD-19 that continues, and will continue, to affect us all.

1. My personal highlight for 2020 was the continued growth and development of my daughter and our family as a whole. Family comes first, in all things (even Laker blogging, lol) and seeing this little nugget grow from toddler to little kid over the course of the year has been amazing. While on the surface this may not seem Laker related she has actually starting asking to watch thm play a couple times in the last month. So, at some point in the future, there will be a new Lakerholic (albeit a very young one)!
2. The sacrifices of medical professionals in the face of sheer idiocy. My wife works in communication for Kaiser Permanante. The dookie has officially hit the fan in terms of hospital bed capacity but even. moreso when it comes to staffing appropriately skilled medical personnel. Please do your part so we can get back to what we used to call normal. Mask up, wash your hands frequently, don’t be afraid of the virus but damn do we all need to respect it more than we have. America is not some bastion of faith-based reality that through sheer will (dare I say ignorance?) can overcome this pandemic. Like all of our great and incredible accomplishments it’s going to take work, hard work, from professionals but it’s al;so going to take the common people chipping in their part. We didn’t win WWII through will or faith, it was hard work. We didn’t put people on the Moon or in space through anything other than dedication to craft, science and skill. Be more than words, do your part.
3. The joy the blog and all of you bring to me. Not going to lie, this blog has sustained me through a lot of things in my life. From it’s earliest incarnation under the K Bros thru Mark Medina to now. The life I’ve lived has seen good times and bad and thru all of it there’s this awesome, sometimes cantankerous but always respectful community of Laker fans that comes together. Sometimes vocally, sometimes silently but always shrouded in a purple and gold hue. So, to all of you, my fellow blog editor Sean, Gerald and especially LakerTom for investing so much timer, energy and personal resources into keeping the spirit and vibe of the OG LATimes laker Blog alive.
4. Speaking of the Lakers. They got back in the winning column against San Antonio a couple nights ago, didn’t have the time for a Fiver but wanted to give some props to the ageless wonder that is LeBron James, the growing superstar that is Anthony Davis and to the Lakers in general for bringing joy and hope to the greater LA area and to Laker fans everywhere. It’s been nice seeing the team back where it strives to be: on top.
5. Speaking of hope and joy, let’s all work together to make 2021 the year of the rebound. Let’s all bounce back from 2020, grab the board and start 2021 off with a thunderous dunk. There will be vaccinations, we will develop an inherent immunity to this strain of novel virus and we will see our businesses open back up, our families come together again and our friends in the places we hang out in. It will happen and the sooner the better. Heck, we may even see fans in the strands and a banner hung before the summer. So, again, let’s all do our parts and beat this thing like the Lakers are going to beat the Spurs later today.

Go Lakers.

Marc Gasol gets his chance to start! Might be a smart move to give Dre some time off to get that toe well. It may be why he has not played well.

Going to miss Morris though. Who’s going to guard Tatum? I guess Kuzma. Going to be a challenging game. But winnable.

KD is definitely not in LeBron’s class as a playmaker. Durant’s stat line: 22 points, 7 boards, 5 assists, 1 block, and 8 turnovers.

Well that was fun. The short preseason and training camp were a bona fide success with every Laker of note seeing some floor time. With a few days before the start of the regular season and the Lakers not having many questions in terms of how this team defends or where our points come from there were few surprises. Having said that, THT certainly did turn some heads. Now for the real thing.

1. Best thing about preseason and the Lakers going 4-0? Nobody got hurt. Outside your standard NBA bumps and bruises, ankle turns and such the team got to see what everyone could do without seeing any serious injuries. Shout out to Mikal Bridges who looks like he suffered no ill-effects from his fall last night. Nothing dirty about the play but I have a standing rule of wishing good health on professional athletes, regardless of the team, play hard, compete well and stay healthy. No injuries.
2. Anthony Davis looks ready to bring the rain. That third quarter was a thing of beauty and Davis has been leading with his defense as always. I think that, if LeBron ends up missing a dozen or so games this season due to load management, you will see a stronger and more assertive Anthony Davis as result. I think he could make a big push on both the MVP and DPOY goals, as well. While there is no doubt that LeBron James is the engineer that drives the Laker train there is also no doubt that Davis is the locomotive driving it forward on both ends.
3. The Two-Step career of one Kyle Kuzma. I want to preface all this by first saying I thought Kyle had s pretty good preseason showing. His shot has been smooth, he plays under control and he knows his game. The fact that he and the Lakers couldn’t come to terms on an extension isn’t too surprising to me for a few different reasons. Primarily Kuzma and his agent likely feel like he’s buried in the rotation here in LA. Professional athletes don’t train hours and hours a day, practice, workout some more, watch film and then maybe train some more just to be pegged into a hole that the rest of the world sees them in. they are so good at what they do because they bet on themselves and the ones that don’t usually don’t last. Kyle is betting on himself, either during the season by proving he’s worth more than being a 7-10 million dollar player. Or the following offseason where he will be an unrestricted free agent and will test the market in a summer when a lot of teams will have cash to spend. The true question regarding Kyle is: does he finish the season in purple and gold. My sense is a pretty firm ‘yes’. While you don’t want to use him for nothing you would still have the option of signing and trading him in the summer and recouping some loss that way. For the cap-strapped Lakers it also wouldn’t be the worst thing on Earth if we lost him for nothing, as well.
4. The G-Leaguers getting some burn. With the active roster expanding to the full fifteen every night there will be some interest in which G-leaguers, if any, make the cut. I don’t see any of them sticking with the big club except for maybe, maaaaaayyyyyybeeeeee Cacock. We need some size and Kostas is a major product who will benefit more from getting up snd down in the development league. I think we keep Quinn Cook (non-guaranteed deal) and so my guess is the roster will look something like:
   STARTERS: Schroder, KCP, James, AD, Gasol
   BENCH: Caruo, Kuzma, THT, Harrell, Morris, Matthews, Dudley, Cook, McKinnie, Cacock
   That’s a solid 15 there. There will be nights where we call upon the likes of Kuz and Tucker to take on larger roles and show their leadership qualities. That group may not have the decisive position/responsibility assignments traditionally seen in the NBA (no true back up PG, for instance) and we may lack for quality size after Gasol and AD, but there are a lot of guys who can make plays for others and play big.
5. Speaking of which, welcome to the Lakers Alfonzo McKinnie! Got his Laker debut in last night, grabbed a board and got a foul in. Enjoy being a Laker!

All in all, a fairly meaningless preseason. The highlight of course being Talen doing all he could to make a case for himself in terms of having a role and getting some minutes. I’m excited to se what kind of adjustments he can make going forward. Go lakers.

With one odd starting line up and an empty arena the Lakers started off sluggish against the new-look Phoenix Suns. LeBron looked a little rusty, Booker looked like the spectacular scorer he his and in the end…it didn’t matter. We won our 3rd preseason affair 112-107. Phoenix looks like a team ready to move up in the NBA hierarchy and one of the big non-Laker questions if the season is will they bump Portland (and stiff arm Golden State) and ascend into the playoffs?

1. THT making it happen. Professional sport has plot lines and one of those that always has a place in every season in every type of team sport is ‘will the kid stick?’ Well…this kid is gonna stick. THT has done about as much as possible with his opportunity to shine in the NBA preseason. On a team like the Lakers, burdened with expectation and with eyes on another banner, that’s no small thing. We don’t need to get into the stats, they’re solid across the board, but what I like best about his success is he isn’t forcing the action to get his buckets or make an impact. It’s all within the organic flow of our team which is not easy to do. He won’t be getting the minutes he gets now, that is one certainty, but if he can impact the game at a similar level he will be another 2nd round gem unearthed by the Laker scouting dept.
2. Kyle Kuzma’s improved game. Kyle looks smooth. It’s a known fact that he generally plays better as a starter but that there is no clear path to a starter role on this team. He showed us that game again last night. Started in place of KCP and responded with one of his better games of the preseason. It’s a flummoxing situation for all involved because you want to see Kyle do well but he does struggle more when he comes off the bench. Maybe, and we say this every year since his rookie campaign, but maybe this will be the season where he really puts it together on both ends and can be another consistent scorer off the bench. His shot looks improved so maybe the short layoff will be better for him in general.
3. Trezz’s energy. Gotta love it. I also love his midrange game, he’s got a nice 10-15 foot jumper he can splash. But his calling card is his energy which is infectious and helps give the bench an early identity to build around. Between Harrell, Kuzma and THT the Lakers have three really solid bench contributors to go along with Caruso and…maybe Quinn Cook right now as the lead players off the bench. The bench will be called upon, often, in the early part of the season as I expect Vogel to impose an unstated, non-rigorous minutes limit on AD and LBJ. There will be stretches where they both sit and it’ll be guys like Trezz and and Co. that need to come in and make instant impacts. He may be new, may not have won a ring but you can see how Montrezl is already making his presence felt on our bench squad.
4. Only Laker we haven’t seen is Alfonzo McKinnie at this point. Every one else that was a camp invite has been cut, the 2 Way dudes have all gotten some burn…not Alfonzo. Can’t see anything on any injury reports or any news about him going through COVID protocols so not sure what the situation is there but I had hoped to see him get some run in. One more preseason game left so we shall see.
5. Oh yeah, AD and LBJ had their preseason debuts. They looked great! neither played in the second half. While we still haven’t seen the entire team play in a preseason (KCP and Caruso out with hip issues, not major) the things that were hallmarks of the championship team remain early on in preseason: team play, solid defense and we have 2 of the best players on Earth at positions that really compliment one another well. So as we make our way to the final preseason affair on Friday the same things that were true and defined the team last season remain true today: we’re going as far as Davis and James take us.

One more of these to go, then the W’s and L’s start to matter. I expect we’ll see as close to the full roster play something akin to regular season rotations on Friday if everyone is healthy enough to go. Next Tuesday we kick it off snd get this party started, Can’t wait. Go Lakers.

That was a fun game to watch. When you’re on fire from distance like we were, playing the kind of defense that leads to a bunch of easy baskets and making plays for the team the game is fun to play and watch. That was indeed the case last night.

1. Rinse, wash, repeat. Beating the Clippers back to back, even in preseason, is always a treat. Y’know…I used to feel bad for the Clipps. Not so much these days what with all the hype they keep pumping up about this and that. In all honesty the only good things that’ve come out of Clipper Land these days is us snagging Trezz and the news that Steve Ballmer won’t be knocking down the Fabulous Forum in order to build his mega sports complex in Inglewood. Nowadays I take a slightly sadistic, special pleasure when we hand that squad an L. Even in preseason.
2. Winning with defense. The best part, in my opinion, about the preseason thus far has been how locked in our defense is. Sure there have been some miscommunications between the new guys (expected) and some break downs here and there (always will be, except of course the Game 6 defensive masterpiece) but for preseason the Lakers already look pretty solid on defense. Whether it’s crashing the glass or ducking into passing lanes for steals or THT mugging Kawhi Leonard the Laker D is on point.
3. Three point barrage. It won’t happen every night but man were the Lakers on fire from three last night! The team shot a whopping 72% and everyone who took one made one (except Marc Gasol). Fun stuff!
4. Speaking of the debut of Marc Gasol… Man is it going to be fun watching Marc with the ball in the high post. Sharing the floor with LeBron and Anthony Davis is going to make his passing so incredibly deadly. His ability to drop surgical strike passes from the top of the arc is a lethal weapon that should be classified as such. The only blemish was he missed his sole three point shot. Other than that he looked like a perfect addition to a Laker team that prides itself on defense and a team-first mentality. Welcome (back) to the Lakers Marc Gasol!
5. The best for last. You knew this one was going to be about Mr. Horton-Tucker. Talen was superb last night and if he keeps this up he’s going to make somebody sit. Who that will be is a tough question for coach Vogel to answer (and he said as much in his own post-game session) but it’s an awesome problem to have. Talen hit step backs from the mid-post out to the three point line while shooting 11-17 (4-5 from three, 7-9 from the stripe) bullied Clipper defenders on his way to the rim, grabbed 10 boards to go along with 4 assists and 4 steals. For as much as he had the ball in his hands he only had 2 turnovers which indicates to me he’s playing under control and not just barreling his way all over the court. He picked his spots perfectly last night and the Clippers, who boast some decent wing defenders named Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, had zero answer for him. While this may not happen every night and he certainly won’t play that type of role on this team on a nightly basis…yet…it was a blast to watch Talen deliver his best performance to date in an NBA uniform. Keep up the good work.

We got two more preseason games left against Phoenix and then this thing kicks off next week. So i expect we’ll see the true starting 5 to a limited degree on Tuesday and something approaching a normal rotation in the second game before the games matter. The emergence of THT as a ball distributor who can obviously get his own shot makes the lack of a true back up PG less of an issue. Between Talen, Gasol and Caruso we have the talent on the roster to create offense in the half-court when Schroder or James sits. That was one of my concerns for this team coming in and seeing how well THT has passed and created has been awesome. Kid needs a role. Back up point forward sounds about right to me.

Please check out our friends of the site, Gerald Glassford and Rafael Barlowe who run Lakers Fast Break and NBA Draft Junkies, respectively.

Aaaaaaaaand we’re back! The Lakers title defense kicked off its Foreward part of the season (aka as the NBA preseason this year) as Chapter 1 is yet to come. We didn’t see many of the players who were featured on the team when we won the NBA title a couple days ago or so. We did, however, see many (not all) of the new faces in what was an expectedly ragged affair. Style points weren’t many to come by and there won’t be any major rotation decisions made based off of what we saw. so the news that will likely make the most headlines is: The NBA is back!

1. The Good. Talen Horton-Tucker looked pretty good, he made nice plays both for himself and others. He looked solid on D as evidenced by his three steals. He had really a nifty finish over Zu in the 3rd. Not the most efficient showing, he played a tough game, though. He consistently found a way to slow the game down which is a huge developmental step for any young player. Trezz played as advertised. the dude almost had a double-double by the half and brought regular season energy in a preseason game. I loved his steal and finish on Serge in the first half. There were some nice defensive close outs for a preseason game. Wes Mathews had a super-efficient game. Biggest good? No serious injuries after we saw Wes hit the deck with a slight ankle tweak and Caruso slip and get some treatment on his hip.
2. The Bad. Schroder didn’t ‘wow’ and none of our ‘sure hope they improve as shooters!’ guys shot great. Fans of Kostas Antetokounmpo saw some nice flashes but will surely have wanted to see a little more, he did play well on defense. Kuzma had a mostly ‘Kyle…’ showing until the game was on the line when he found an open Quinn Cook for a three and canned a clutch triple of his own. You know, the regular preseason kind of thing.
3. The Ugly. The turnovers, so very many turnovers. With so little time between October 11th and the season kicking off there isn’t the luxury of a lengthy ‘getting acquainted on the court’ phase of the season and it showed tonight. Also the overall shooting was terrible, especially from three point land. Personally not sweating the Bad or the Ugly, for many reasons. Mainly: it’s preseason.
4. One odd thing: no rookies on the Lakers this year. There will be no hazing, no backpacks, everyone will carry their own luggage (or in the personal manner preferred) and the whole squad will have some amount of NBA service time logged, barring a trade.
5. From paper to reality. Since we didn’t see 4/5ths of the Lakers starting line up tonight (I’m assuming Schroder starts) it’s fair to say we still ain’t seen nothing yet. We got a win, nobody got hurt and some of the guys we’re hoping develop into something useful did pretty well. We’ll see if Sunday sees more players of impact see the floor for some time together.

For more exciting NBA news and Los Angeles Lakers info, introspection and insight check out NBA Draft Junkies and Lakers Fast Break!

When the word “flurry” doesn’t suffice because the NBA trade season was more like a Nor’Easter of player movement that scarcely was able to keep pace with the number of big time extensions doled out you just gird your loins and ride it out. When the dust settled this morning, for the most part, I figured now would be a good time to write about these new-look Los Angeles Lakers. I have to preface this by saying I liked all of the moves we made, they all made sense in terms of our team identity and skill set. In short…

1. Dennis Schroder: This guy is a perfect fit for everything we’re doing these days. Solid scorer, solid passer, tough as nails and getting better. The best thing, in my opinion, about this signing is that it adds another dynamic isolation scorer/play-maker to the roster that over relies on the brilliance of LeBron James with the ball in his hands and the scoring prowess of Anthony Davis. Getting Schroder gives us a legitimate 3rd option when both aforementioned players are on the court and a solid 1st option should they both be on the bench. His defense is solid, maybe not spectacular but on our squad you just need to out the effort in and the results will bear out. In a familiar theme this off-season he also brings a ton of grit to the team, as well. While he’s not the passer that Rajon Rondo is he’s a capable PG who hits the open man and creates offense simply off his penetration into the lane.
2. Montrezl Harrell. Grit defines this guy. Trez is all energy all the time, while he had a disappointing Bubble showing (likely why he was available at the price he was) there’s a reason why he’s the reigning 6th Man of the Year. He plays hard, does all the little things and can play the 4 or 5. While not an outside threat Trez is a great finisher and will be a solid pick and roll partner for Dennis Schroder and James. Personally I’m pretty excited about this pickup, I love gritty hard-nosed players and Harrell checks all those boxes.
3. Wes Matthews. A great pickup to address scoring off the bench. With Kyle Kuzma’s shot firmly lodged in the “streaky” category (along with Alex Caruso) the Lakers did themselves right picking up a shooter of Matthews’ caliber. While not one of the legendary marksmen in the modern NBA, Wes is a capable scorer and solid defender. That fits perfectly into what our bench needs and we have an even better backup for LeBron than we did previously. Wes is still coming back from a significant Achilles, as evidenced in his below-average season last year, and could be a huge addition if he can get back any of his pre-injury mojo.
4. This one just dropped, Markieff Morris. ‘Kieff earned a spot in the heart of Laker fans with his solid showing against Houston and contributions throughout the Bubble playoffs. Knows his role, plays his role and does well in his role and that’s no small thing in the modern NBA. With Morris back in the fold (and I realize he’s not necessarily a ‘new-look Laker’ but this being his first full season qualifies, in my humble opinion) the Lakers bring back one of the key cogs in our small ball lineup. Great pickup by Rob and Co.
5. Marc Gasol. I’ve always been a huge fan of the Gasol brothers. Love their skill set, love their approach to the game and they’re both winners at every level of the game. While we may not be getting the Memphis ‘grit and grind’ version of the younger Gasol we’re certainly getting a rugged tough interior defender who can handle the likes of Jokic and other rugged, skilled big men in the game. His ability to can threes makes him the perfect fit alongside AD and LBJ and with guys like Harrell and Morris on the squad we won’t need huge minutes from Marc. Save him for the playoffs along with James and any other vet that needs to be eased into the season.

The return of KCP certainly gets honorable mention but it’s not like Laker fans are unfamiliar with what he brings to the table. Alfonzo McKinnie brings in another certifiable defense oriented small forward and for all this we still have Kuzma, Caruso and THT on the roster meaning we’ve not utterly dismissed the value of home grown talent. All in all, for the amount of time everyone had to prepare and the small window within which all of these deals happened I think the Laker front office deserves an A-/B+ for these moves. A better grade may be retroactively rewarded based on the outcome.

Go Lakers.