5 Things: The Love Is Gone

Folks who have been around the Lakerholics blog and the LA Times Laker blog of yore may remember a cat named Phred. Phred had a whimsical way of posting and would often conclude his thoughts with “it’s all about the love”. Well, if Phred were here (or lurks in the shadows of the blog-o-sphere) he’d be saying something along the lines of “the love is gone. it’s all about the love”. Because, hooooooooooo-boy, that was one bad game and I’m not as willing to blame this one on tired legs as the last.

1. I know I sound like a broken record buuuuut…defense was A.W.O.L. Again. Whether it was Tyler Hero raining down fire from three, offensive rebounds or just a lack of hustle and vigor there wasn’t much resistance put up by the Lakers last night on the defensive end. As a result we got our asses handed to us by 41 points. This is unacceptable. With Vincent we have, in theory, a better POA guard than we had at any time last season. Vando barely played last season and has yet to suit up in this one (an issue I’ll touch on down below). The combination of Dalton Knecht and D’Angelo Russell is even worse defensively than the Reaves/Russell pairing. In general we’re just not showing much heart on that end of the floor. This is where the season will be defined, if we can’t forge a semi-respectable identity on the defensive end, we will be a bad team. It’s really just that simple.
2. If Dalton ain’t shooting he shouldn’t be starting. This isn’t really on Dalton, either. He’s not calling the plays. He’s not bringing the ball up. He’s not the one dictating the action. So, while it’s obvious he’s been scouted and teams are making an effort to deny him the ball, it’s equally obviosu that his presence in the starting five (and his role in general) is predicated on him taking and making a lot of three pointers. If he can’t add another wrinkle to his game (driving thew ball and scoring in the paint/making a play), set solid screens to free other guys when they aggressively cover him, or up his defensive impact he really doesn’t need to start. Again, this isn’t necessarily on all DK to address, the staff has a lot to ponder as we finish the road trip out.
3. DLO coasting. In some ways I get it. No deal, been picking up his options rather than getting what I’m sure he feels he deserves in free agency. Yada yada yada. The thing is, if DLO wants one of those bigger deals he need to stop coasting. Gone is the aggressive player we saw get PO’d after getting benched by Coach Ham last season. Returned is the passive, aimless, drifting combo guard who is increasingly harder and harder to justify his role. Every single stat on the block is down this season and down in a way that represent career lows: minutes, FGA, FGM, 3 PT FG% (the year he got hurt and missed about half the season is his career worst, technically…by .1%), FTA, FTM, rebounds, and blocks. He’s near his career lows in assists but all the lower years are his 1st 2 years in the league. In a season that should be about him earning that next deal, under a coach that was supposed to unlock his game…this is pathetic. I’m sure the Lakers are shopping him, they’d be fools not too. The problem is he’s really expensive contract filler at this point. A contender doesn’t need him, he’s not a rebuild/culture kind of guy, and so here we are. Basically having to pay to trade the dude, at this point. Better to simply let his money expire and start reshaping the roster through free agency unless we can combine him and couple other players into a decent deal (the opposite of the Westbrook deal, hopefully…)
4. Bench was always going to be an issue, more so with Vando and Hayes out. AD can’t do it all and when Russell, Knecht, and Reaves are the starting front court options you lose so much on defense you dig a hole that we evidently can’t get back out of. Reddish needs to start for one of Russel or Knecht when Reaves gets back. If Reaves is out you either need to start Gabe for Russell or Cam for Dalton. LeBron doesn’t have enough juice to give good effort on defense when we’re asking him to basically carry the offense…which we are. With teams switching to a “deny AD the ball in his favorite spots” defense it’s more on LeBron to initiate and make plays as the opposition is happy to watch us shoot from the outside as a first resort. In general the Lakers strengths start inside and trickle out, we’re not an early shot clock three point shooting team…or at least not a very good one. Once we’ve dug a hole, and with Reaves and Hayes out, the bench can’t beat the other teams bench or really even make it competitive. This is why, even though the starting five with Cam and Reaves had an overall net negative rating, the bench got better with DLO, Knecht and Hayes, for the bench to be competitive at this time you need to start Cam or try a G-Leaguer or consider going bigger and start Koloko and bench Rui. None of these feel like good options that move the team forward, though, they all feel like crappy band aids.
5. Trade our way out of this? In theory? Sure. Wait until the 15th when you can include Max Christie in a deal, package Max, DLO, JHS and whatever other dead weight that makes the money work and hope two unprotected 1st rounders and two 1st round pick swaps gets something meaningful done. In reality, we don’t have much anyone wants other than the unprotected 1st rounders, Reaves and Knecht. I don’t know about you but I rarely see meaningful superstars traded for a couple of first rounders, a couple swaps and detritus. In the Lakers case, at least JHS and DLO are expiring money so, in theory, that represents something of a bonus but, again, the reality of NBA trades doesn’t seem to support this happening. Especially for the Lakers. Nobody wants to provide us the spark that elevates us to the next level or out of mediocrity. So, while I don’t think we can move forward as we want to they way we are, I’m not sure we have enough to swing for a player that is A) available, B) actually helps the team, C) we won’t have to overpay for. I get that the idea of winning the trade vs. getting the player that fits is a thing to navigate, I just don’t trust Rob to navigate it well or intelligently. I also expect him to get fired this summer.

One more in Atlanta, who is a giant-killer this season so maybe it’s a trap game for them? I dunno. We got one more epic road trip this season and our road record is abysmal. 60 games left on the schedule, 28 road games. We need to nudge that road record back towards .500 and we need to figure out how to respond to losses better. Dropping 2, 3, 4 games in a row isn’t a great habit to build. Need someone to step up or a miracle trade to fall into our laps. Neither feels likely.