Well here we are still early in the NBA season. We have some teams doing better than what some may have expected, some teams doing not as good as they were initially expected to, and then we have teams that are just kind of a disaster. For the LA Lakers it’s starting to look like this is going to be a bad season… again. After last season’s disappointment and ending 33-49, I certainly feel that Lakers fans were expecting a turnaround this year especially with adding Patrick Beverley and Dennis Schroder. Everyone thought that would improve their odds to make a NBA playoff run this season.
There are always a number of factors as to why a team is failing. The first and most important factor in the Lakers failure this season is… they can’t shoot the ball. Bottom line is, if you can’t shoot the ball, you’re struggling to put the ball in the hoop. Then you’re struggling to put points on the board. And a team has to put points on the board. It’s actually borderline embarrassing if you’re a Lakers fan to watch this team chuck up shots and just keep laying bricks. They are currently in 26th in the league trying to knock down a shot from behind the arc, it is almost laughable as they’re hitting barely 33% out there. Lonnie Walker IV has been their best shooter from deep, out of players putting up 3.5 or more from deep this season hitting 38%, nobody else is cracking 37%.
They have an offense that often gets bogged down without any creativity. Whereas the ball goes to their ball dominant player whether it’s Russell Westbrook or LeBron James and everyone else just kind of stands around waiting to see what they decide to do. It’s almost the epitome of everything that’s wrong with the game today. Not nearly enough ball movement and far and away way too much ISO play and everyone wanting to be the Top Dog.
And since Anthony Davis and his injury, that as we all know has become a part of his everyday season, this team apparently has nobody who could defend the rim. Since his injury, the Lakers have taken a pretty significant step backwards. Since Davis has been out of the lineup, the team has given up 123 points per game which is +6 more than their season average of 117ppg. And there’s no question that Anthony Davis, with a career average of 2.3 blocks per game and 7.7 defensive rebounds a game, is obviously a huge part of this team’s core.
But, James is the leader of this team, we all know that. James has personified dominance for the last 19 years. But when your leader is putting up air ball jumpers, it’s going to be really hard to get excited. The leader of a team is who is going to get a team moving, who’s the catalyst, and LeBron James, although having a statistically amazing season at his age, just does not seem to have the heart or the drive that this team really needs. Like the age old quote “attitudes are contagious” that says volumes for this team right now. It just doesn’t look like this team believes in their ability to come through when they need to or have belief that they can win games they need to win. He is the guy that needs to keep things under control and keep the team on the right path, even when things are looking bad, and it’s starting to look like he is unraveling.
There are more than enough indicators that this team either needs a big time trade, or quite honestly, a complete overhaul and start thinking about 5 years down the road.
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