5 THINGS

The upstart Utah Jazz came into town on their “Go Ahead and Count Us Out” tour and promptly showed the league exactly why we should not count them out. Again. If you’re still surprised at the Jazz start or the Lakers’ record, don’t be. These are two perfect storms colliding in totally different ways. One is a storm of fresh starts and new opportunities for guys who have been relegated to something lesser, the other a storm of age, expectations and desperation. I’ll let you decide which is which. One thing became crystal clear last night: this Laker team needs to leave no room for error and become perfect margin walkers.

1. LeBron vs. Father Time: Round 8. Victor? Father Time. LeBron didn’t make a three for the 2nd straight game. Looked, for the most part, uninterested in playing defense or forcing the action into the paint. He also tweaked the ankle of his already injured left foot all while playing 34 minutes. It’s not this his jumper is fading late as he works his way back into shape it’s that it’s not there at all, yet. This version of LeBron spells nothing but doom. Trade anyone you like, it won’t fix issues stemming from the King’s lack of explosiveness. He went to his bully hall game, eventually, but found the defense loaded. One wrinkle I would have liked to see was re-inserting Matt Ryan at some point in the second half. He hit a three, had one wiped off by a bad call on LeBron and might have helped unclog the paint more than Troy Brown Jr. or Patrick Beverley (more on him later). At any rate it won’t really matter if threat of LeBron from three doesn’t exist. Which doesn’t currently exist.
2. The Incredible Vanishing AD. 20 points and inspired play in the first half. I would be flummoxed if asked how he scored his last two points. Free throws? Outback? Layup? Couldn’t tell you because in the second half AD left his game and energy in the locker room. This game was one for both the diehard AD supporters and the fine with AD basically crowd. You got both versions! I’m one game! Conveniently split up by halves. In his defense, when they went big we should have gone big and matched up better because we don’t really have an effective small ball line up. Not will we anytime soon. Jones could have helped keep Kessler and the Jazz off the offensive glass as a lot of those rebounds were just a guy playing big.
3. Mr. MVP. You heard, I heard and I personally loved it. I have never once bought into the idea that the issues with the Lakers start and end with Russ. The man plays hard as f$&@. He’s embraced a role he likely despises. sTA-er-…Crypto….dot com…arena showered him (and not LeBron or AD) with MVP chants. He deserves that. Why? Because he’s the best player the Lakers have right now. Go ahead and read that again if you have to but it’s true. He’s the one applying pressure, being coachabke, and showing up with purpose. AD took the entire 2nd half off, LeBron is either still working his way into game shape r old. Russ is taking a ragtag group of nobodies and has-been an and going in 25-14 runs, getting the crowd pumped and doing his job. His entire vibe is night and day from last season. I love it.
4. Patrick Beverly is gun shy. You can’t pass up open shots and you can’t just be a cheerleader or stop Matt Ryan from celebrating the biggest shot of his life. We need him to apply some kind of pressure on the defense and he seems incapable or unwilling to do so. At this point I expect him to lose his starting job the second Schroder is cleared to play because we sorely lack someone other than Russ and (when he chooses to) LeBron collapsing the defense. Pat needs to up his aggression. Honestly, that was a weird thing to type but I think it’s true.
5. When the other team gets 20 more field goal attempts and you walloped them in free throws made and taken you know who was playing harder. The free throws were legit, Utah forces the whistle with aggressive play in both ends for a full 48. The Lakers play “The Ref” game and aren’t focused on getting back, boxing out, or running guys off the three point line. This was a truly winnable game had LeBron had more of an impact, AD showed up in the second half or anyone took on the task of boxing out or denying threes. Nobody did, that’s why we’re 2-6 instead of a momentum building 3-5. Still, this team has shown me something on this homestand. I just question that it’s enough.
   
   There are a lot of challenges this season. Must first year coaches are like Will Hardy, given rebuilding projects with extremely low expectations except to see a lottery ball with the number 1 on it. Ham has a legendary franchise with unrealistic expectations and the tools are suspect. One night Russ is off, AD is in and out both physically and mentally, and James is old. The rest of the roster are 10-15 bench players on a lot of teams. This was always going to be a challenge. Good thing all parties involved came in with eyes wide open.
   

Last season’s team would have crumbled, stumbled or bumbled that win away. They would have figured out a way to blow it. Down 3 after two missed free throws and with 1-6 staring them in the face the Lakers managed to pull something off that was a rarity last season: a gritty, come-from-behind win. The heroes were Austin Reaves and his nimble cross court pass and Matt Ryan and his acrobatic three. That shot erased another bad game from Patrick Beverley (inexplicably on the floor in the 4th and crunch time), LeBron (9-23, 0-7 from three) and some uninspired offense down the stretch of the 4th quarter. Still, that W will look exactly as all the others this team manages to earn this season.

1. Audacity: a willingness to take bold risks. Well that was what that play was from beginning to end. Audacious as all get out. The pass was the one a coach cringes at as it flies over the court and through the air. Seemingly destined to be picked off or flung out of bounds. Destiny had other plans last night and Austin Reaves heave found the pirouetting hands of Matt Ryan who, somehow, managed to spin and fire an off-balance, one-legged, step-back fade away three from the absolute corner of the court. The shot isn’t one you teach, or probably even “work on”. That’s just talent and skill popping up to say ‘howdy-do!’ Toes behind the line? Check. Feet inbounds? Check. Bucket made before time expired? Check. Overtime baby.
2. The DoorDash corporate motto: At DoorDash where “Delivering Good” is our motto, we are committed to growing and empowering inclusive communities in our company, our industry, and our cities. If only Brooklyn was as modern in it’s thinking. Anyhow, Matt Ryan found himself delivering the basket of his career last night after just a year ago delivering grub for DoorDash, Uber Eats and a cemetery in Yonkers, NY. What a story for the season in a league that loves itself a good plot point.
3. LeBron’s legs. Aging superstar watching Father Time close in or older elite athlete working his way into game shape? We’re in the zone of “either one” right now. LeBron started slow last season and come mid-November found that extra gear to kick it into. Still, so far this season The King looks like another aging volume scorer where efficiency is a second thought. That’s not one of the pillars LeBron has built his legend on. Seeing Harden go out for a month, after coming into the season in “the best shape of his career” (which I actually kind of believe this time around) shows how little can separate being able to contribute and having to sit as player hit their upper 30’s. This is another reason I see a Russ trade as still unlikely to go down so early in the season. He’s insurance in case LeBron needs to sit or not play for an extended period. Especially as he (hopefully) works himself up to real game strength and speed.
4. AD playing tougher. Color me happy as a clam. Some will look at the lack of three pointers and see a problem. It’s not a problem, yet. AD is punishing teams inside the arc as well as he ever has, is an offensive rebounding machine and is creating offense by cleaning up other players garbage. That is exactly what you would want out of the center position and AD is doing it at an elite level. Would it be nice if that three ball was working? Sure, it would help many minor facets of the Laker offense but the truth is teams would rather Davis take the three, even if he makes it. We can win without AD taking 5 (or any) three pointers/game, we just saw that in back-to-back games against contending teams. What you end up with is an elite rebounder in position to do just that something that won’t happen when AD is standing in the corner. If his back is hampered that means his mobility and recovery speed is hampered. he won’t be racing down the floor after a miss to guard against leak outs, he’s going to be slowly getting the atomic batteries to power, turbines to speed and lumbering down the court. Once he gets through his back issue, should that happen, I expect to see more outside offense from AD but for now, if he can’t be fast, I’d rather he be tall.
5. The DNP crowd. Ham has made the right move in shortening his rotation and relegating Nunn, JTA, DJ and Max to the bench. Christie and Pippen Jr. are not going to be big factors this season, at least not until they’ve had some time to work on things with the coaches, get more time in practice picking up concepts, and just working out to improve their strength and stamina. Nunn looks kind of washed after his first game was a solid outing, nothing to write home about since then. Jones is like a Whiteside lite: decent defender, no offensive game beyond lobs, basically lets teams clog the paint on defense no matter what and isn’t elite at rebounding to offset like AD is. Bryant, were he healthy, will have to make shots to stick since that’s his biggest draw. When Dennis comes back and if he plays well it makes Nunn all but expendable. Which is why the Lakers should be aggressively shopping he and Beverley and, if necessary, a FRP for Turner. Russ is insurance and allows the team to rebuild next summer (even if that were to just use he and, should he end up a Laker, Turner’s Bird Rights to go over the cap). Nunn in the right situation has value, Beverley, too. Both are expiring and let a team clear a nice amount of cap space next summer. You might even be able to coax a FRP out of Pelinka since it’s his favorite itme to bring to the party.

All in all this game probably shouldn’t have required such an incredible bail out shot from Ryan. LeBron went full on tired Iso King and failed to deliver. Gabriel threw a pass into the 15th row late in the game when we really needed a bucket. Beverley guarded against excessive celebration but contributed little else down the stretch. Ham had, in my opinion, the wrong players on the floor to close the game out. PatBev can’t throw it in the ocean from anywhere. Gabriel should be waived and Melo signed into his roster spot. Russell is as good a defender and rebounder as both players combined. Still, Reaves and Ryan bailed him and the team out and a win is a win. Sometimes lucky is enough.

It was going to happen eventually. At some point the Lakers were going to win…we hoped. Turns out it was against a team they had played days earlier in the Denver Nuggets. We had some different looks for the Joker, made shots like you gotta do, and played with energy, focus and poise throughout. You could even call this a blueprint game, something to build off of.

1. Westbrook off the bench and it’s working. Not gonna lie, thought theis wouldn’t happen for another 10-15 games. Good to see that coach Ham has the locker room enough to make this happen with the kind of impact. It’s also a credit to Westbrook to putting the team before his desires. In the end this isn’t about any single player, coach or person. Team sports need team buy-in and team execution and we saw that all on display last night. Russ might be cantankerous with the media, and honestly why shouldn’t he be? I rarely read about teammates not getting along with Russ. Except KD. Go figure on that one… Anyhow, game ball goes to both coach and player for making this possible quicker than I thought possible. Russ had great impact off the bench, closed the game out with a stellar defensive play and the Lakers are going to need a lot more of the same.
2. AD playing toughish. When he grabbed his back after that tip in I thought he would be out for a week. He stayed in, kept making plays, and sounded like a guy who will at least try to play on Wednesday. Davis and his much maligned toughness and stamina changed that narrative a bit, if only for one night, and helped keep the Lakers in the game in which he took zero three pointers. At this point I’ll take what I can get. If he doesn’t trust his shot, I don’t want him shooting. We got a whole season to work that out in the lab…off the court…where the game ain’t on the line. We know he can take them and make them, he just needs to get that back into his brain. For now I’ll take dominant low post threat AD and the defense that comes with it. 15 big rebounds, 6 offensive and the last one loomed large indeed. At this point it’s hard to worry about when, or if, we’ll ever see Bubble AD again. My guess is not too soon and we should all accept that this is the player he is now. If the other one Hyde’s back in at some point, awesome.
3. Reaves finding some kind of aggression. It must be easy to choose the backseat when you look across the floor at LeBron James, Anthony Davis or Russell Westbrook. To just sort of believe they’ll shoot the shot. This team doesn’t need another guy trying to find AD, LBJ or Russ. This team needs guys that shoot the shot off their passes without over-think or under-reacting. Shoot. The. Dang. Shot. Reaves has been too tentative in a lot of games this season. He’s always trying hard, which is wonderful. He’s got a high hoops IQ, which is great. He’s got some solid NBA skills that compliment the team, which we’ve all seen. What he’s not is aggressive. In the first half he was basically a no-show. With Kendrick Nunn looking more like trade fodder than a guy with a role on this team the last 4 games we need Austin Reaves to up his aggression. Let open shots fly, take it to the hole when they close out and take it hard. Make the extra pass if tyhe play requires it but chances are you ARE the recipient of that extra pass so do your job. Bottle last night’s game and bring it back to the arena most nights.
4. Kendrick Nunn’s defense or lack thereof. With the rep of a gunner…but one who could at least contribute on D, I was hoping for more from the Kendrick Nunn “I’m back!” tour. I don’t know if this is rust getting knocked off, if he’s always been this streaky (and not in a Nick Young “it’s fun to watch” way but in a painful “oh Trevor Ariza is on this team?” way) or what but Nunn looked like he got benched pretty quickly last night. Only Damien Jones (2) played fewer minutes than Nunn’s 3. He made his only three. We need him to play or we need to find him a new home. We can’t have a guy who takes up that much cap space fall into the ‘DNP-coaches decision’ pile. Nunn and Patrick Beverley are starting to creep up to Russ in terms of the trade I see happening first. You could trade Nunn and Pat Bev for a decent player…along with one of our FRPs. Beverley and Nunn are both expiring deals totally $18.25 mil. Enough for Buddy or Myles. Enough for a lot of guys that could help this squad in any number of ways. Both are struggling here but could be swapped to a team looking to jettison a contract they don’t value but could help us. Don’t be surprised if these guys get traded before Westbrook does.
5. Lonnie Walker’s efficiency. I like that he attacks like he does, I just want him to be better at it. Walker has been fitting in pretty well. Do i think he should have been one of the first deals we made? Not really but a lot of the guys I was hoping we could sign signed for more elsewhere. Of course, LW$ being a of the Klutch Kabal only made it more galling on a personal level since I feel like Rob is basically money laundering for Klutch at this point. Regardless, LW4 has been showing up on both ends and has been one of the more consistent performers on this team so far.

We’re nowhere near out of the woods but a few other teams in front of us are stumbling out of the gates, too. Opens it up a little more for us getting that first win. Now we need to string some together, start by winning out the last 3 games of the home stand. Congrats to George Mikan and his family for the jersey retirement and thanks to “Big Game” James Worthy for presenting. You know what would have happened if it were Rob or Jeannie.

Not going to lie, this isn’t an inspiring topic to write about these days. The sad state of affairs that the Los Angeles Lakers have become is on full display for all to see. The faults and flaws in the foundation are plain to see for all. Most of us round these parts saw this season coming roughly 8-9 months ago. Some think a trade can fix most of it, some don’t. For now though, this is the Laker team we’re all forced to stomach and, to put it bluntly, it ain’t pretty.

1. “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing”-Stephen Covey. In this case that would be putting the ball in the basket better. Simple, right? In the case of the Lakers who swung wildly from one side of the NBA equation to the other, yet again, this summer evidently not. One has to wonder at this point why Wenyan Gabriel is on the team and Carmelo Anthony is not. I would play Melo in front of Gabriel, JTA, Troy Brown Jr., Jones and Ryan. Unsigned. This team needs someone besides LeBron who can score from the outside. That ain’t Anthony Davis, not on this team. Probably not ever again. Sooner he and everyone else accepts that and plays and adjusts accordingly the better for everyone, Davis included. I’m sure there will be games where he heats up, that jumper is falling, but he took three outside the paint shots last night, one of which was a three pointer. He ain’t stretching jack shit. It’s not the coach, it’s not the system, it’s not that lack of other floor spacers it is the player.
2. “Well, you can put lipstick on a hog and call it Monique, but it’s still a pig.”-Gov. Ann Richards. In this case that would be the, shall we say anemic, Lakers bench. There was no way to look at this without wondering where points would come from. JTA’s career average is 4.8 ppg. Wenyan Gabriel 3.5 ppg. Troy Brown Jr. 6.4 ppg, impressive for this squad and I can see why coach Ham is excited about the young lad. Austin Reaves is 7.2 but that’s based off his empty calorie season here last year when he scored 7.3 ppg and this season is a more accurate representation of both his role and impact at 5.5 ppg. Damion Jones 5.6 ppg. That’s 27.5 ppg, on average from 5 players and I’m keeping Reaves on the bench in this because he shouldn’t be a starter. Yes, that does exclude the streaky Kendrick Nunn and his 14.7 ppg. Currently he’s at an also anemic 5.5 ppg. That 9.2 point differential is the biggest issue confronting the Lakers right now. Without it the Laker bench is averaging 33 ppg. This season, small sample size though it may be, the Laker bench is averaging 22.8 PPG, next to last behind Philly. 9.2 points gets us to an even 32 ppg.
3. “Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”-Stephen King. There is actually talent on this team. It just isn’t working right. Now this may come back to, as James mentioned in his post gamer, a lack of familiarity. If that’s the case, good, there is nowhere to go but up. However, if we recall the lesson’s of last season and the pratfalls of what preseason can inform us, this team is actually great at working hard. There truly isn’t enough talent. Trade or no trade we are relying on a bench of cast off players. We have at least 3 end of the bench guys in featured roles and that’s without major injuries. Can Thomas Bryant and/or Schroder really be the answer to this equation? It’s hard for me to see that as the answer.
4. “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know.”-Anthony Trollope. This pearl of wisdom has been used often and successfully in my life. When people clamored to trade Gasol or Walton or Danny Green or any number of contributing role-players whom could find fault in (protip: you will find fault in all things if that is what you are looking for and that one’s all me) I would post some version of that quote. However, in this season, I don’t think that’s true. The real question is, given the assets we have to ship out, is there a deal out there to improve that? This topic will define the Lakers season and it’s one that can’t be answered by fans. Few questions or issues can. Personally, I’m dubious. I feel like we burned this season two summers ago when we let all of our modular contract players go via the trade for Russ and let Caruso and Schroder walk for nothing. This is the price of ineptitude. The only question is do they choose the band aid or let the rot fall away?
5. “Far from being the end, death marks the start of a series of events that together complete the circle of life. From the decomposition of plant litter by worms, which captured Darwin’s attention, to the decay of a giant whale corpse at the bottom of the sea, the process of decay recycles the dead and resupplies the building blocks of life.”-Cyrus Martin. Extreme, I know. But this one gives me a faint whiff of hope. Watching LeBron is fun, he can’t do it on his own, he needs more talent. That can come in the form of Kyle Kuzma (the Lakers LOVE reunions!!!), Jerami Grant or Myles Turner (signed for zero draft picks!) next summer. This season will be wasted. Sure, the Buddy/Myles trade might vault us back into the playin convo. Any trade tossed out that’s the ceiling. Maybe not Kyrie and Curry but I doubt the Nets bite unless things really cave and they just look to pull the plug on the whole shebang and take what they can get. A true fire sale. Still, it ain’t up to me and I still have a Russ trade happening at 50/50 odds…in February.

“The now-ubiquitous ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ phrase was chosen for its clear message of ‘sober restraint’ and was coined by the shadow Ministry of Information at some point between 27 June and 6 July 1939.”-Wikipedia (they could use a donation, btw, lol). It’s just basketball. It can be fun to watch, this is generally speaking not too much fun, moreso to talk/type about as in the moment of watching the game I’m enjoying myself. it’s the Russ bashing, predictable ineptitude of Rob, and the overall erosion of a team I did enjoy watching into this muddy mess that’s hard to find the fun in. C’est la vie. Go Lakers.

Guess it’s time to start cranking these out. Not going to sugarcoat it, these 5ers will likely follow the same trend I’m already seeing from the Lakers themselves. Defense needs to be on point nightly, need to value possessions, scoring will be difficult if the player isn’t named LeBron James or Anthony Davis. This was an issue anyone could see coming a mile away if you had any experience simply watching basketball. Evidently Rob is just now discovering the value of shooting on a roster that isn’t in the form of a 35+ year old player. Crazy, I know…

1. Team almost. We almost beat the Clippers. Whee. Didn’t realize we’re giving out participation trophies after the 2nd game of the season now. We didn’t and that’s what the record at the end of the season will reflect. If this was OKC it might be newsworthy. We are not. We have perhaps the greatest player of all time who at 37 going on 38 tied for the game high in minutes played at 37 minutes played (fellow Klutch Kancer, er, Klient Lonnie Walker IV also played 37 minutes, unfortunately). That is what is known as unsustainable and unintelligent. Almost gets you nothing.
2. AD’s latest, greatest injury concern. That didn’t take too long. For those on “AD Injury Watch 2022!” your wait is over. AD took a hard fall after biting on a Kawhi Leonard fake, fell over the self-same player, and landed hard on his already balky back. This after yet another off-season of great work put in, healthiest he’s ever felt, blah blah blah. Here’s another one for Team Almost: Anthony Davis is almost healthy, which means he’s not, which means he’s thinking about it, which means he’s compromised on the court. You saw it in the last 25-30 seconds of the game: AD gets the ball on the three point line with the Lakers down 4 and a wide open three in front of him! His play to win the game was to begin a meandering dribble inside the arc that wasted another 8 or 9 seconds but did result in a tough LW4 floater that changed an 8 for 20 night into 9 for 21! Lakers lose. The dude needs to get outta his head but I don’t see that happening.
3. 1-25. Astounding that three players could create such a futile looking stat. Yet here we are. That we…almost…won the game with that stat as a backdrop should be some kind of accomplishment. Russell Westbrook, Kendrick Nunn and Patrick Beverley built themselves a house, 2 car garage and a shed last night. Here’s a prediction: this won’t be the last time we see something like this from the Lakers until the front office finally waves the white flag and admits ineptitude.
4. Speaking of ineptitude. Remember when we traded Zubac for Beasley and Muscala? Yeah, me too. There is a place in the game for centers who do center things like set good screens, hit shots in the paint and (I know this is crazy because I’m not going to type “shoot threes”) rebound. Zublaca did all that and more last night and was absolutely rock solid for the Clippers last night. Solid like someone you can depend on to cover the paint on defense. Solid like he’s fleet of foot enough to hang with AD on the perimeter. Solid like he had as many blocked shots as our whole team. Sometimes you don’t need flash to get it done. Sometimes you just need solid.
5. The construction of this roster is worse than last season. I find it astounding to type but it is true. At least last season we had skill and talent. This year we have youngish. In all the wrong ways. Reaves looks like he’s trying but still doesn’t have the skills, body mass or foundation to defend the kind of NBA players he’ll get switched onto. JTA can’t shoot. Matt Ryan can’t do much else and even that he ain’t elite at. This is the consequence of two choices and neither is the Westbrook trade: when we let Dennis Schroder 1.0 and Alex Caruso walk for no compensation whatsoever we didn’t just lose players we lost cap placeholders that gave the front office more tools to improve the teams. We’ve got two MLE signings, Beverley and three guys making a combined $130 million dollars. The cap this season is $123. You won’t get good value on a Beverley trade. You won’t get enough back in a Russ trade, although you hopefully break that massive sum up into a t least 2 players. None of those things are happening this calendar year.

Buckle up. I expect we’ll have a lot of almost games. Games where we defend stoutly, take care of the ball, and even make our free throws but it won’t be enough because we have a roster full of NBA cast-offs and after thoughts. That ain’t on Russ. That ain’t on AD and his numerous injuries. That ain’t on The King. That’s on Rob and Jeannie.

Go Lakers.