Well, that didn’t make things any better. Lakers came out OK in the first half (with what looked like actual in-game rotations, for the most part) and then put the kids in and watched them get blown out. It’s getting hard for some Laker fans to keep their emotions out of the process of early evaluations for a lot of reasons. Last season’s debacle, no Russ trade, and not really an inspiring summer that makes one feel it’s close to turning around. Not surprisingly the good people who paid money to see this left grumpy and let the team know it.
- The Trio looked OK. AD looked solid, Russ looked like Russ and LeBron looked like a guy in his 20th NBA season taking his time getting his legs going. Nothing to report here, preseason vibes all around. I will say that when the young guys are getting blown out and the “team leaders” are hooting it up on the bench it does set a tone.
- The center question. I came away hoping to see Bryant as the starting center, just think he’ll open up the floor more. DJ is serviceable but I just trust Bryant’s shot more at this point. If we want to develop Jones into a stretch three, fine, but let’s do it off the bench in what should be a more orchestrated play calling environment when James and Davis are off the floor. No need for him to learn next to LeBron and he’s a better dunker which will open up the screen and roll game for Schroder.
- Nunn might also be better coming off the bench. Mainly because we need a bonafide scorer when James and AD sit. Swap him and Reaves or Beverley and I think the starting five will be fine. Taking Reaves off the bench unit and into the starting five shouldn’t be an issue, he played with everyone last season and will help that unit gel quicker. Nunn and Reaves shouldn’t really be tasked with running the offense, Nunn might get there but let the sophomore get into a solid role mindset and do well before adding to his workload. Both had way too many TOs last night for their role on the team.
- Heart was an issue last season, looks like it could be again. Everyone and their keyboard railed on coach Vogel for losing the team since they didn’t play with enough heart or passion. Fast forward to the new coach, new team, new season and…same as it ever was. This part of the game isn’t learned, you bring it from within. You can’t coach passion into guys, they either want to dominate or they want to play. Looks like we have more players than dominators, albeit in a small sample size. Mainly this looked like a bunch of guys who have played a weekend’s worth of pick up hoops in San Diego and gone through some sets the coach wants to run. Hoping for more cohesion as time goes on. Leery of the issue of heart being something of an internal/cultural issue, though.
- Young guys with something to prove showed they might not really be ready. Scrubs on scrubs and ours got wasted for 24 minutes. Out played, out hustled, out everything’d. Looked way too much like last season, hence the booing. If you’re here, you’re under 27, and on a minimum deal this is sort of your last, best shot to re-write your narrative. Carpe diem, young bloods, carpe diem.
Still, it was the first game and the guys who will be playing more looked OK. Not going to read all that much into this other than noting that utterly rebuilding the team every summer just isn’t the way to build a contender. This is a square 1 team, no need to think of this squad as the “semi-recent champs” but rather the “we have a couple really, really good guys who were part of a never-to-be-replicated banner and guys who couldn’t get a better deal” Lakers. Time will tell what they’re made of but the first glimpse was pretty underwhelming.
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