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Rough Seas to Start the Season
Rough Seas to Start the Season
The beginning of the Lakers season has been less than stellar. For a team that came into the season with high hopes and eyes to contention, a record of 8-7 through 3 weeks is not what was expected, at least in-house. The story of the season has been the struggle to get healthy. Through three weeks, Zion has missed 2,, Kawhi has missed one, and Victor Wembanyama, has missed 2, likely with another week or so to go before his return. Those are just the stars. The Lakers have missed their would-be 6th man, Terry Rozier, all season due to an offseason gambling scandal. They’ve also missed do-it-all role player Derrick Jones Jr. for 2 weeks to this point, who will be out for a couple more at least. To top it off, one of the higher upside swings the Lakers took this offseason in 2-way Jordan Miller has also missed time after an explosive start to the season with the NBA Clippers. The start of the season has been anything but perfect, but there have been some bright spots amongst the low pastures the rest of the season has presented.
The Good:
The Lakers are a championship contender when Victor Wembanyama
is healthy and available. Although we
only got 2 weeks of healthy play, Wembanyama’s stock is the highest across the
league. He’s averaging 40 points, 17
rebounds, almost 5 assists, 2.5 steals, and 3.1 blocks on 71% shooting from the
field, and 62% from 3. If those numbers
could be expanded upon over a full season, Wembanyama would obliterate the
numbers of all former NSL MVP’s, scoring on par with some of the best the
league has seen, but well surpassing their play with his defense and rebounding
numbers. When healthy, the Lakers were
7-1 after 2 weeks, with their lone loss being a shocking opening day loss to
the Mavericks who perhaps overachieved for the first couple of weeks of the
season. Now here’s the good part. The Lakers did all that without Kawhi Leonard
and Zion Williamson on the floor. There
may be some struggles with the team once all of their star pieces are on the
floor at the same time, but there are plans in place to address the dim hopes
of such a situation coming to fruition.
There’s a real expectation internally that when the Lakers get healthy
the sky is the limit.
The Bad:
The Lakers are 8-7, sitting good for the 6 seed out West currently. The Lakers perhaps don’t have the big man
depth to withstand a missing Wembanyama, which has been especially present to
start the season. Nurkic is a great
backup Center, and he can even spot start to fill in, but the 3rd
center spot has been filled by N’Faly Dante, the unproven young big man out of
Oregon. He’s filled in admirably when
called upon but leaves a lot to be desired when comparing against the Lakers
normal center rotation. Chris Paul has
been atrocious, perhaps the worst signing in the NSL Lakers free agent
history. To this point he has operated
as the team’s starting point guard, though his positioning on the team has been
heavily scrutinized of late. A move to
the bench may be just what the old vet needs to make more of an impact. With retirement on the horizon, and an
impending shift of Amen Thompson to the PG spot, the Lakers are just looking to
maximize Paul’s talents this season. A
switch to the 2nd unit could be just what the doctor ordered.
In order for this team to maximize it’s capabilities, a direction needs to be
determined with Zion Williamson. He’s
great when he’s on the floor, but he’s got a bit of a mismatching skillset with
the current team in place. GM Justin was
bullish about Zion’s fit alongside Wembanyama, as it was pivotal in the GM’s
eyes to bring in a floor spacing center to make up for Zion’s deficiencies, but
the two have yet to play a minute together this season. All eyes will be on the Lakers front court
duo upon their return to action, as many around the league expect a change to
be made quickly if the duo doesn’t provide the return that is expected: a top
seed out West, and the look of a championship team.
We are still young in the season. There
is plenty of time for this Lakers team to ascend. But to do so, the team must get healthy. Many have talked about the Lakers biggest
threat being the injury bug for 2 years now, and we have seen that injury bugs
ugly head rear early and often this season. Here’s to hoping that in future articles we
will be revering the teams success, and not wondering what could have been with
this talented group.
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| laddas 12/16 11:06 pm | QN, Qtr. 1, #1 | ||