Aloha,
Usually by this time of year, I generally have had an idea of how good the Lakers are. Last year we got off to a great start and played enough games together before the injury bug hit to have an idea of how good we could be. This year the injuries began in training camp and it’s been a revolving door of players ever since. So how good can this team be? I have no idea. The big 3 have only played together a hand full of games and all of the role players have missed time.
Still there have been enough glimpses of promise to give me some hope. So what needs to happen? A lot of things. I won’t even mention LeBron because he is the one constant that if healthy will just do what he does.
1st 2nd and 3rd AD has to come back from injury and avoid another injury the rest of the year. His sprained MCL will be reevaluated in another week or so. With luck he will be cleared and can be back on the court by the end of the month. But he has to be more then he was prior to the injury. His jump shot has been inconsistent and his 3 ball has fallen off a cliff. The good news is his dominance in the paint. Now that it’s apparent that we are moving away from an old school starting a center it’s going to be a plus having AD at the 5 moving forward.
One thing I’ve noticed over the last few weeks, is we are finally playing with energy. We’ve lost so many games for lack of energy that we really dug a hole. We need to keep the energy level.
I don’t believe we have trade chips to land a star player, there maybe a small deal or a buy out player but for the most part we will need find the answers with this group. Stanley might help fill our biggest need, a versatile defender with size.
That said we really need Malik to continue this hot streak. And what’s been impressive is he is playing at a much higher level then we have seen.
THT has had a rough start with injuries and Covid. Frank made a few comments that hinted that THT might have had some symptoms and is now getting back. Hopefully that’s true, a consistent THT will go a long way in turning this season around.
Getting Nunn back can be huge. He was having a great training camp before he was injured. On offense he gives us another 3 level scorer, a playmaker and on defense a quality on ball defender. Getting him back could be the same as a trade bringing in new talent.
We are solid at guard, set at the 5 with LeBron, AD and Dwight. If Stanley continues to play well he could fill are biggest remaining hole.
We still have a lot of work to do. Our defense has to improve and we have to solve our defensive rebound problem. But if we can stay healthy and learn to play together, we still have enough time to turn it around. It’s so important to win all of our winnable games until AD returns.
Aloha, Michael. Great post. Love your optimism and positive thinking.
I agree 100% with you that the Lakers are in a good position right now, which is surprising considering everything that’s gone down in the team’s first 39 games with injuries and Covid.
It’s amazing what three in a row and four out of five wins will do for the team’s and it’s fans’ outlook. But the sudden optimism is built on critical positive developments we’ve seen over the last five games.
LeBron at the five is at the heart of the Lakers’ and LeBron’s renaissance. After being derailed by Anthony Davis’ injury, the Lakers were finally forced to play LeBron at the five and ther rest is history.
Credit Lakers head coach Frank Vogel, who embraced the results of LeBron at the five and committed that AD and LeBron would be the team’s primary centers going forward, with a touch of Dwight.
The continued excellent play by Melo, Monk, Reaves, Bradley, and Howard supported great play by superstars James and Westbrook showed everybody how good the Lakers could be.
Suddenly, solutions emerged. LeBron James at center. Monk as starting shooting guard. Johnson as big wing defender. Reaves as the guy who makes every lineup better.
I still think the Lakers are one more player away from being a true championship contender. They need a young, physical 6′ 8″ to 6′ 11″ stretch four or five to give them more size, defense, and versatility. Cam Reddish could be that player. Or Myles Turner, Christian Wood, Chris Bouchet, Jerami Grant, or Harrison Barnes.
For sure though, the murky clouds hovering over the Lakers future thinned and separated and things suddenly look much better than they did just a few games ago. Let’s hope we’re really building something right now. Need to beat the Hawks on Friday night.
Good one, Michael. The one thing that stood out to me in your post is about us playing with more energy. That, to me, has to continue. The more I see them play with energy the more I am confident we are going to be a force to be reckoned with.
The other thing that is giving me a sigh of relief is the continued improvements of Monk and THT, and especially THT getting out of his funk. Hopefully, we are going to see a better version of him for the rest of the season. Stanley Johnson is quite a revelation. Can’t say enough about how much he has impressed me. What a find!
Your take on AD is pretty much the same as my thoughts. He needs to be a better version of what he was before the injury. There is going to be a lot riding on his back when he returns.
All in all, I am getting quite encouraged as the team seems to be always finding something new that works.
We’re exactly where we are. Nobody saw the events unfolding as they have and yet that’s the road we’re on, regardless of intent, availability or anything else we want to try and conform this season to. We’re on a ride with the end not yet in sight.
The defense was always going to be an issue, especially in the regular season. We struggle more against young teams than I anticipated and I think that’s mostly due to having a lot of older players on the roster and being under-sized in general.
The rebounding will be an issue when we’re small. James isn’t Draymond Green, he’s more of an orchestrator, finisher and attacker than Green is. Russ needs to keep attacking the glass and Johnson should help a little.
The young guys who have been available are playing like, well, young guys. Good one game, gone the next. It’s difficult to be consistently good in pro sports, to say nothing of being consistently great. It ain’t easy. So it’s not too surprising that we’ve lacked consistency from those dudes.
AD has always been and will indeed be the key to any sustained success this team can muster. His defense is the key to unlocking so much of the potential on this squad, moreso in years past simply because of the personnel he’s surrounded by. His scoring inside, on this team, is more important to me than his outside shot. As long as he takes them when they’re there I’m cool with it. It would be nice if he was making more.
At any rate, if Russ, LeBron, AD and Melo are healthy I like our chances against any team in a 7 game series. Just need to get a couple other guys going in that case and leave the winning to the professionals.
Well said, Jamie. I agree that if Russ, LeBron, AD and Melo are healthy our chances are good. None of the top seeds in the West would ever want anything to do with the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs. It all boils down to the health of the team.