Tonight (11/21/23), we’ll be 15 games into the regular season. Still a small-ish sample, but what we can say so far?
Since the beginning of the AD era we’ve been great at blocks. **In 2020, we had**
* a huuuuge frontcourt with AD, McGee/Howard, Bron
* at our best, we were a great squad at defense and rebounding…and blocked shots
* also had nightly MVP-level heroics from Bron and AD
* Bron led the league in assists!
* Rondo was a great vet and was “Playoff Rondo” when needed; Green was our designated shooter, KCP and Kuz hit big shots
**Who are we now?**
* We traded all of our 2020 team, except the two stars.
* We’ve been mired by injuries every year.
* Finally, in 22-23 we were healthy enough (and rid of Westbrook), so we could show something.
* THAT team got to the WCF on the strength of role players providing huge bursts of consistent offense; also, we were a great defensive team
\— **2023 team stat rankings:** [**https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/team/los-angeles-lakers/stats**](https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/team/los-angeles-lakers/stats)
\^ **Let’s break this up into tiers:**
* Top 10 (good->elite)
* Middle 10 (average->ok)
* Bottom 10 (terrible->bad)
* The stats say…we are **good** at getting FTs, making 2-pt shots, scoring in OT games, defensive rebounding, blocks (*thanks AD!)*, steals (*thanks, Cam!*), and not fouling.
* And we’re **bad** at 3s, getting shots up, 1st quarters, \*\*offensive rebounds, and turnovers.
* (\*\*Note: you don’t get a lot of offensive boards if you don’t miss)
**What do you think? Feel free to look beyond the stats well.**
by thesonicvision
12 Comments
No we don’t because our squad isn’t even fully healthy yet
I worry that the defense relies too much on AD covering up other peoples mistakes. he’s gonna get hurt at some point and miss time (he’s my fav player but I’m just being real). And then what?
Have you been watching the games at all? Stats don’t show that we are a new team trying to find what works for us while our progress keeps getting put on pause due to injuries.
Right now- our identity is mixed- we have LeBron playing out of his mind and showing he is still elite top 5 player in the league even at 38 years old. The bad: our outside shooting is abysmal. Our shooters are missing open shots. We don’t have solid defensive rebounding. We get consistently outrebounded on offensive end. Also our energy and effort isn’t always there each game. we start games really flat. I am kind of worried how this team is winning games. We barely beat a really bad Houston Rockets team. it required us to play LeBron 40 minutes and Reaves to hit some really insane shots. We should be spanking the Rockets.
Hate to be the guy but we don’t know till at least Vando is back
Theoretically, having Vando / Cam / Gabe / AD is a pretty elite set of defenders to complement Bron, Rui, Austin, Dlo offensively
I think what we’ll realize is our identity is going to be a grind it out team w/ not a lot of 3s, big lineups, and a lot of transition offense. It’s similar to the 2020 style but guys like Austin / Dlo / Rui will add a shot creation element that that team didn’t. That said, we also won’t be as good of a defense as then lol
We are generating great looks on offense. Our open look % and play calling is actually decent. We are just missing wide open shots at an incredible rate. If we progress to the mean in our shooting, we will be fine
Need Vando and Gabe back
Our identity is that we can’t shoot for fucking shit but everything else is pretty good.
But we also broke an NBA record for 3 point volume efficiency.
lmao
Not sure yet. Tbh something I wanna see is someone else help on either offense to allow AD to super focus on defense or some defenders to double down on clamping teams
LeBron
I think they’ll make a deep playoff run, WCF maybe earlier if seeding is shit. They have a strong defense that will get better with returning players and if the team shoots even average from 3 they usually win easily. Big questions are injuries and rest/standings, is the team durable enough and will they have enough in the tank.
I think they could beat any team in a 7 game series, I’m not sure they’ll hold up for a finals run and they (like many teams) have no answer for Jokic. But they have Lebron and AD, both playing well and healthy, good depth with a functioning defense, they’re set up for success.
i was thinking last week our identity is Perseverance….Frustrating Perseverance.