Tonight (11/21/23), we’ll be 15 games into the regular season. Still a small-ish sample, but what we can say so far?

Since the beginning of the AD era we’ve been great at blocks. In 2020, we had

• a huuuuge frontcourt with AD, McGee/Howard, Bron
• at our best, we were a great squad at defense and rebounding…and blocked shots
• also had nightly MVP-level heroics from Bron and AD
• Bron led the league in assists!
• Rondo was a great vet and was “Playoff Rondo” when needed; Green was our designated shooter, KCP and Kuz hit big shots

Who are we now?

• We traded all of our 2020 team, except the two stars.
• We’ve been mired by injuries every year.
• Finally, in 22-23 we were healthy enough (and rid of Westbrook), so we could show something.
• THAT team got to the WCF on the strength of role players providing huge bursts of consistent offense; also, we were a great defensive team

-– 2023 team stat rankings: https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/team/los-angeles-lakers/stats

^ Let’s break this up into tiers:

• Top 10 (good->elite)
• Middle 10 (average->ok)
• Bottom 10 (terrible->bad)
• The stats say…we are good at getting FTs, making 2-pt shots, scoring in OT games, defensive rebounding, blocks (thanks AD!), steals (thanks, Cam!), and not fouling.
• And we’re bad at 3s, getting shots up, 1st quarters, **offensive rebounds, and turnovers.
• (**Note: you don’t get a lot of offensive boards if you don’t miss)

What do you think? Feel free to look beyond the stats well.