First Quarter
With 21 games played, the Lakers are officially done with the first quarter of the season. There's still a lot of basketball left to be played, but we can start to make some assessments about the team's strengths and weaknesses. I don't think it's fair to anybody to make comparisons to last year, so this will only look at how the Lakers are performing this season. No player grades until Half Time.
The Skinny
Record: 12-9
Division: 4th (Pacific)
Conference: 8th (Western)
Overall Grade: C+
The Lakers don't suck. They're not great, but they don't suck. They're beating the teams they should beat, going 7-1 against teams with a record of .500 or below. At the same time, they're losing the games they should lose - they're only 5-8 against teams with a winning record. As currently constructed, this team will likely hover in the 5th-7th seed range for most of the season.
Offense
First year head coach J.J. Reddick has done an exemplary job getting this team on the same page and executing an actual offense. I know what you're thinking - you heard your grandpa talk about the Lakers' offensive sets but never actually thought you'd see one yourself.
But it's true. The Lakers have an offense. And it's pretty good.
Check out 's breakdown of the . It's all about motion. No. Really. As a lay person, I can't understand why professionals have to be taught something that we all learned in our first year of ball, but Reddick is doing it and it's working. Despite struggling the past few games without Austin Reaves, the Lakers still rank 9th in Offensive Rating and 10th Field Goal Percentage. And they're doing it without playing fast - they only rank 17th in Offensive pace.
One of the reasons is that the Lakers are getting to the line and hitting their free throws. They currently lead the league in free throws made and are 3rd in total attempts. There's some room for improvement in their overall percentage (14th), but it's still a respectable .782.
Defense
As good as the Lakers have been on offense, they've been almost equally bad on defense. The Lakers currently rank 22nd in Opponent points per game and 24th in Defensive Rating. Most concerning is that the Lakers' defense is like shoot-around for the other teams. They're currently 24th in opponent FGs Made and 26th in opponent FG%. Teams aren't taking (11th in attempts) or making (17th in makes) a lot of threes against the Lakers. They're just nailing easy 2s - the Lakers are 19th in opponent 2pt attempts but 24th in opponent made 2pt shots. In other words, teams are really taking advantage of their poor defense.
A lot of that is personnel. The Lakers simply don't have many good defenders. But some of that is schematic too - there seems to be no help for the weak perimeter defenders and guys are making mental mistakes late. Reddick isn't hiding from it, but, at the same time, has no real answers.
He's tried juggling lineups without much success. The Lakers have 8 different 5-man lineups that have played 25+ minutes this season. . Compared to the rest of the league, they're middle of the pack....
Bright Spots
But it's not all bad!
- Anthony Davis has been a man on fire. His 27.8ppg, 11.5 rpg, 1.3 spg and 2 bpg are MVP caliber
- Dalton Knecht is taking advantage of his opportunities, earning 9 starts to date
- Austin Reaves has been a calming factor on offense. His numbers aren't eye popping but he has been the key to the Lakers offense (as evidenced by how much it has struggled since he got hurt)
What's Up Next
- 11 of the next 21 are against teams that are currently .500 or above
- 9 of the next 21 are on the road
- injuries: Reaves (day-to-day) will hopefully be back soon; Hayes, Vando and Wood are still weeks out at a minimum
We're in the dog days of the NBA. While the Lakers only have 1 b2b (Jan 2/3), they do have several stretches of 4 games in 6 nights over their next 21.; health with be a paramount concern.