Looking forward to this year

Aloha,

I haven’t posted in a while. I went into NBA hibernation because this may have been the most uneventful NBA offseason I can recall. Not just for the Lakers but the entire league. The combination of the new CBA, the play in and the lowered lottery odds for tanking has created a truly boring offseason with very little in the way of trades. The few players supposedly on the trade block were being shopped at ridiculously high prices. Even moving players with 2nd round picks was pricy. It cost the Nuggets 3 2nd round picks to move off of Reggie Jackson. While I blame Rob for the position we were in going into the summer, I don’t blame him for not getting anything done under these circumstances.

Still I’m cautiously optimistic heading into the new season. JJ is growing on me. He has the players buy in. They seem genuinely excited to play for him. He has a few experienced former head coaches to fall back on. It’s the leadership and vision that counts more than X’s and O’s.

I like our starting unit. They were 21 and 8 down the stretch with the toughest schedule in the league. And everyone they faced has something to play for. When this group played together this preseason they still look very good.

While we didn’t add any free agents this summer, in a way we did. Vando and Gabe played very little last year and if they are healthy this years it’s like adding 2 tough defenders to the team. Wile I’m hoping Vando will be back soon, Gabe has looked pretty good in minutes he played. Obviously he was on some minute restriction as they eased him in.

So I think we are solid through the top 7. I think after that is what will tell the tale. Overall Max was pretty impressive, especially on defense. He is still young and does make young guy mistakes but overall I think he will contribute. I believe Dalton will make JJ go to a 10 man rotation. He looked very good. If Wood can rediscover his offense, he is a guy that played well with AD last year. But our biggest current need is a defensive minded center to back up AD. We were killed last year whenever AD rested. Perhaps Koloko can be that guy. If not, at some point we will have to trade for one.

I think if this team performs well, AD could be a MVP candidate. I believe JJ is going feature him more than any of the prior coaches. There will be no more 4th quarters where he doesn’t touch the ball.

A lot has to go right for this team to contend, health of course being number one priority. We will need our young guys to a take another step in their development. And I have already seen it. With the exception of 3 point shooting, Austin has looked better on both sides of the ball. Rui has as well. He is defending better and rebounding at a high level, to go with very solid offense. He was my candidate for MIP player in a poll I took part in. Max has grown and we will have to wait on Vando.

While the west is really tough and we have a hard schedule out of the gate if most everything goes right and maybe wrong for a few teams I think this could turn out to be an exciting year.