There are clearly two packs of teams hunting for playoff seeding and as we enter the second half of the NBA season tonight it’s important to remember that the Lakers have clearly entrenched themselves in the lesser pack. We might be considered the lead dog in the west to push through into the upper echelon but, to date, the Lakers have proven that they are one thing: mediocre. With three superstars and a collection of parts assembled by Dr. Frankenstein (Vogelstien? Dr. Frankenlinka?) the Lakers are surely in need of something to kickstart the second half of the season. We need a little bump.
You can choose to place the blame on a variety of fronts. Injuries, sure we’ve had ’em. So has every other team. Kyrie Irving only recently started playing for Brooklyn after they reversed course on him being a part-time player. They’ve been challenging for the top record in the east all season long. The Denver Nuggets have had almost their entire projected starting line up decimated by serious injury and Murray has yet to play and we’re tied with them in the standings. Injuries are a part of the game and don’t represent a true reason not to show up with a competitive attitude which we fail to do on any sort of consistent basis.
COVID ravaged our team. Yeah, and the rest of the NBA, too. Next. The issues plaguing the Lakers have less to do with who isn’t on the court and rather the attitude and demeanor of who is. Of all our young players Monk has grabbed the bull by the horns the best but only recently. THT this year has looked exactly like THT of every other year: wildly inconsistent in his energy and impact and generally with a decent amount of minutes played to boot. Reaves is a rookie and finding his way on many fronts. Of all our young guys I would actually argue Reave’s been the most consistent in his energy and approach.
I think the thing that will define the Lakers this season was undertaking a three superstar team while choosing not to fill out the roster around them correctly. After watching Westbrook’s post game interview from after the Grizzly blowout I came to the conclusion that the organization never truly embraced Westbrook. The Dinner that this was all born of was one where the three players said they would sacrifice. Thus far it has been Russell doing most of the sacrificing and you can see it starting to get on his nerves. He’s assuredly the second option to LeBron, and honestly he should be. LeBron is better.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be figuring out how to maximize Russ’s other talents to their fullest potential or making sure he has the right tools when he’s on the court sans LeBron to be as effective as possible. That might mean giving him a big man to run P&R action with and guys who don’t defend like Frank wants them to. He called Ariza to get him on the team, let him play more with Trevor. It was a mistake to not get an athletic big man to help play solid defense but give him the best we got. Throw Dwight and Trevor in the 5 and 4 slots and Wayne at the 2 or 3 and either Monk, Reaves or THT in the final spot and see if they can space the floor and let Russ go to work. I would choose Reaves whom Russ seems to have a rapport with.
It’ll be a shame if the Lakers pull the plug on the Westbrook experiment for failures the front office made. Not retaining Caruso and not signing one of the bevy of better centers that were still on the open market when we signed Jordan were cataclysmic failures that should force the ownership to question Rob’s ability to build a competitive roster. Between taking more and more of the tools Frank liked to use in his defensive schemes and filling out the roster with too old and too limited of skillset players it’s easy to use Russ as the scapegoat for the mistakes the Lakers themselves made.
Swapping Ben Simmons for Russ or Grant for THT and Nunn might fix this but I really don’t think it will. Turner is honestly the only player that makes sense to me. He plays the defense we need, doesn’t need the ball to be effective and stretches the floor well enough. The Lakers keep trying to bring in guys who take the ball out of LeBron’s hands and with Russ they’ve done that to the degree that it will happen. We have guys who are catch and shoot three point specialists and we need the coaches to figure out how to unlock the ones we have and stop the endless carousel of “not THAT three point shooter THIS three point shooter” we’ve been on for three seasons now. We’re actually just going back through the same list. Heck, let’s bring Wesley Matthews back…again… We need players who better augment our superstars, not emulate them on a lesser level.
So, to that, as we move up to the day we can trade THT (which I am of the opinion will happen) I hope the Lakers front office looks at their own process as much as what they see unfolding on the court. It’s a problem of their own doing in many ways and like Dr. Frankenstein feeling the urge to destroy the incredible creation he brought to life they need to make the environment right and not destroy that which they may see as an unfixable monster. Give the monster the tools it needs to live and thrive.
Go Lakers.
“I am an unfortunate and deserted creature, I look around and I have no relation or friend upon earth. These amiable people to whom I go have never seen me and know little of me. I am full of fears, for if I fail there, I am an outcast in the world forever.”
—
“It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another.”
– Mary Shelley
Great post, Jamie. There’s no doubt this season like the Lakers’ other two Covid-tainted seasons will end up being another new distorted form of reality when in comes down to NBA history. Makes it hard to seoarate the Wheat from the Chaff.
Luck, especially in the form of good health, is the monster lurking over every team’s shoulder in this Covid era. Your Frankenstein comparison has legs as the mismatched components Pelinka et al put together certainly has some serious fit problems that lead to the team having problems keeping their arms and legs in sync.
What Covid has done is turn the regular season into some exaggerated form of preseason where most of the games don’t count. What matters is who’s standing and healthy when the playoffs start. And that is why the Lakers still have a chance.
Let’s get AD and Nunn back, make one smart trade for another starter (Turner or Grant), pay cash to teams to take DJ and Baze, and pick up a couple of key role players in the buyout market.
Then fine tune the last 25 games of the season and head into the playoffs as the #5 seed, playing the #4 seed, which should be the Utah Jazz, who will be overtaken by the Memphis Grizzlies.