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.
Although these are all sensible things for a contender to have, you haven’t shown that contenders don’t also need…
a clear, reproducible gameplan and style of play
a clear starting lineup and understanding of the most effective lineups in various situations
That’s what an identity is: a style/strategy you can reproduce and trust to give you the best possible outcomes (given your personnel) when executed correctly.
Teams that are still searching for what’s most effective don’t win rings.