5 Things: Forget the Trailblazers, Lakers have major issues

The Trailblazer’s game was garbage. Terrible effort on every front, got played off the floor by the better team and the biggest issue is this is happening when we face what are considered to be bottom-feeding teams. The Lakers have an age problem in that we are an old team. Our superstars are old, our role-players are old and all but 1 of the young guys signed over the summer and a rookie are injured. On top of that we are counting on guys who put their bodies through a lot just to feel healthy. As soon as they get dinged up a little, it seems to mean they get dinged up a lot. Pro sports are a younger person’s affair, for the most part, and this ain’t golf or baseball.

1. LeBron’s injury-riddled time in Los Angeles. However you care to quantify this it’s becoming an unavoidable topic of debate: LeBron is getting older and it’s showing in his shot selection and his availability. LA got vintage LeBron, a finely aged player still capable of putting up quality performances. Then came the groin injury and a mostly lost season. 2019 will always be looked at through the lens of LeBron turning back the clock in the playoffs and helping bring banner 17 to the rafters. However, that also has to come with a big “But” in the form of a 3 month break midseason as planet Earth grappled with COVID-19. Then came the following season where LeBron was playing at a high level, again. Until Solomon Hill accidentally took him out with a high ankle sprain. Since his, at times shaky, return from that injury one thing has stood out: LeBron now shoots a lot of threes. Now he’s out with another ankle injury, one that some say could take as long as a month to heal. At 36, with the mileage that body has accumulated, it makes sense for the Lakers to be as cautious as they can afford to be given the impact James’ health has on our title chances.
2. Anthony Davis aka The Man Who Falls Down A Lot. I love AD and the way he plays the game. He really does play in the style of a throwback power forward a la Bob McAdoo but with better range (“Doo” would have been a beast in the modern game, btw). If you listen to Bill & Stu on the Spectrum broadcasts you’ll there’s a running joke about AD hitting the floor and how many times he picks himself up off of it. It will not surprise me if, at some point, we see AD attempt a FG from said floor. The dude is elite, no doubt, but he also gets nicked up easier and quicker than a lot of other elite players. I’m not questioning his heart, the world of pro sport is littered with guys who had the talent and the heart but their bodies simply did not cooperate for them to have the kind of careers many expected. AD, like LeBron, benefitted greatly from the COVID time off when he turned in a playoff performance for the ages. That is not something that will be replicated and so the question facing him now is: can you do it within the confines of a true, 82 game NBA season? I believe he can. I am of the opinion that, if the roster is relatively healthy and LeBron is at something like 80% we can win a 7 game series against any other team, east or west. That will depend, as it always does, on a modicum of luck. But good health, especially to your superstars, is a must for any team that wants to do more than place SHOW.
3. The Russell Westbrook puzzle. I’m not too proud to admit that I might have been wrong. That Mr. Sean Grice and Mr. Gerald Glassford may have been correct when they said that Russ was not a good fit on the Lakers. I still believe they will all figure out some way to make it work, though that way has certainly not yet been discovered. Westbrook had a golden opportunity against Portland to impose his will on the game. Instead he turned in the worst performance I have personally seen from him, ever. Toss in that the bench we normally deploy gave us nada and the route we all yearn to forget went down. It’s almost impossible for me to conceive a world where the Lakers entertain trading Russell Westbrook, it feels like it would take Dame specifically telling Portland “trade me to the Lakers” and that Russ would be the one to swap. We would also have to still be at, or below, .500 for that to happen. I just can’t see that happening…yet. Even I, of the realistic and pragmatic approach (as opposed to those with glasses of rose), really have a hard time seeing what lead the Lakers to such a dismal conclusion to the Russell Westbrook as a Laker saga. But it is starting to take shape in my mind, which is not a good thing. Because if I can kinda see it now then there are people within the Laker organization that saw back in the summer and likely submitted a memo or bent Rob’s ear for a hot minute only to be over-ruled. I still believe that the Lakers, as constructed now, have enough to win a banner. They suffer from Brooklyn-itis right now: too many pieces that have specific needs that really haven’t played together much. If we can cure that, we got a great chance.
4. The rest of the team. It is certainly no secret that, as a result of having three max contracts on the books, the rest of the roster is essentially filler. Composed of a lot of aged vets on minimum deals, Malik Monk on a minimum deal, Nunn for the MLE and THT on his extension with a dash of “hey look at Austin Reaves go!” that’s the Laker bench. This is another area where the age of the roster is an obstacle to overcome, especially in the regular season. All of the guys we play in support roles with either the starting five or off the bench are over 30 except for Monk and Reaves since both THT and Nunn have been out since camp. Carmelo is going to come and go, but like any aged gunslinger he’s only good until the bullets run dry in any one gunfight. Dwight hasn’t been able to recreate his 2.0 Laker magic, DeAndre Jordan looks as washed up as he did at the end of his tenure with the Clippers, Ariza has been hurt and Bazemore and Bradley are decent support, at best. There is no young blood who has the skill and talent to impact the game in a winning way that i available. To be honest, I don’t really see that in him, to begin with. Whatever the impact they can make, we need some of the younger guys to get back competing and see what they can do to help turn this around.
5. All things filter from the top down. Rob built this team. Yes, it was with a nod of acquiescence from AD and LBJ but it was his hand that put it together. It’s now Frank’s team to coach. I wondered before camp if Frank had the gravity and voice in order to bring these disparate identities, skill sets and egos into a cohesive force that could consistently win basketball games. I still have many, many doubts in this regard. It’s not Frank’s fault that he was given a roster of either old guys who have defensive reps or young guys who do not but that is in essence the team he was provided with this season. His rep as a defensive coach has been put to what I would imagine is the biggest test it has faced, yet. The Lakers suffered a pretty significant brain drain on the coaching staff, the team is not built for the style the coach likes to play, and many of the key pieces have yet to play significant minutes with each other. In an of themselves, none of these are enough to sink a team’s season. Taken as a whole and at at the same time and this looks more and more like an iceberg in the ocean…waiting…waiting…

I still believe we can overcome all of the above. The question is when more than if. This team was always built with the playoffs in mind, even with Westbrook. While not as much as in the past there is generally more time between games, you’re facing the same team and we got guys who know how to perform under pressure of all kinds. I don’t think too many teams will be trying to position themselves to face the Lakers in the playoffs, so long as we’re relatively healthy. Time, however, is a major factor. We want to be assured of a seeding, not fight for a play in. We want to make what we have work as is, not add more time to what is already a lengthy process of discovering fit, building chemistry and figuring things out. We want the coach we have to do his job right and stick around for awhile because Frank’s a funny guy, helped us win a banner, and if you bring in another coach (even one off the bench) you’re still going to have to re-adjust on the fly. None of that is desirable. So, in the interest of title #18 here’s hoping this group can push through this time of difficulty and figure out a way to win now. Go Lakers.