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.

  • suhar97B
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    1 year ago

    Hate to be the guy but we don’t know till at least Vando is back

    Theoretically, having Vando / Cam / Gabe / AD is a pretty elite set of defenders to complement Bron, Rui, Austin, Dlo offensively

    I think what we’ll realize is our identity is going to be a grind it out team w/ not a lot of 3s, big lineups, and a lot of transition offense. It’s similar to the 2020 style but guys like Austin / Dlo / Rui will add a shot creation element that that team didn’t. That said, we also won’t be as good of a defense as then lol