7 Things We Can't Wait to See During Los Angeles Lakers 2014-15 Season

The Los Angeles Lakers are not going to win an NBA championship this season.

They’ll be lucky to grab a spot in the playoffs and may even finish near the bottom of the league standings.

Surprisingly, though, the best thing about the Lakers of 2014-15 is not the NBA draft next summer. It's the intriguing individual stories of players, young and old, rookies and veterans, who make up the current roster that will keep interest high.

There's a first-round, lottery draft choice and a second-rounder with a chip on his shoulders who may push the veterans and bring the sort of youthful energy this Lakers team has been lacking for several seasons.

There are reclamation projects and unheralded, yet talented, journeymen who will have a golden opportunity to grow with this club or find themselves a new home elsewhere in the league.

What we won't get to see this season is a legend in Steve Nash. Just this week, the Lakers and Nash agreed that his season on the active roster was over before it even started due to health reasons. Reached before his team's final preseason game Friday night against the Sacramento Kings in Las Vegas, head coach Byron Scott said (via ABCNews.com):

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Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to coach him. Steve has always been one of my favorite people in the league because he's such a professional, such a gentleman. Just like everybody else, I'm wishing him all the best.

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The same sentiment needs to be conveyed to Scott, who takes over a team in transition with a number of question marks. Kobe Bryant and company may surprise us—they have nowhere to go but up.

1. How Julius Randle Handles Rookie Pressures

He's been compared to a young Zach Randolph or Lamar Odom. Those would be some very big shoes to fill for the 19-year-old Julius Randle.

He seems up to the task.

Following his best game as a Laker, a 17-point, eight-rebound performance against the Portland Trail Blazers earlier this week, Randle was feeling good. Via the Los Angeles Times:

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I just told my mama the other day, I said, 'I don't want to just be a post player. I remember I was always taller than everybody when I was younger. People used to call me, like, 'Oh, he's going to be the next Shaq.' I'm like, 'No, I don't want to be the next Shaq. I want to be Kobe.'

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Byron Scott is being a psychologist as much as a coach when it comes to Randle. He seems determined to not praise the 19-year-old power forward too much but give him just enough rope to keep him interested.

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Via Mike Trudell (NBA.com) as camp was starting.

I see a young man that's raw, but he has great feet and great quickness for his size, and he's strong as a bull. You can tell that he wants to get better...I love those attributes, being strong, big and quick for his size. That’s a very good combination to have.

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And after the Portland game, a victory largely attributed to Randle's play, Scott continued to temper his enthusiasm.

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I don't think the kid has ever really had to play hard. I know he has never had to work as hard as he's had to this year. Each game, he seems to get a little better. Again, we all tend to forget that he's 19 years old.

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Randle does not play like a typical 19-year-old. That's why the 6'9", 250-pound former Kentucky Wildcat went as high as he did in the draft.

2. Jeremy Lin's golden career opportunity

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One door closes and another one opens. It happened this week in Los Angeles, when the Lakers announced that Steve Nash was done for the season (and probably his career).

An enormous door opened wide for point guard Jeremy Lin, who originally was penciled in as the backup to the 40-year-old Nash on the Lakers depth chart.

Even had Nash defied the odds and been able to play injury-free this year, the 26-year-old Lin was destined to see substantial minutes.

Now, he might very well play 40 minutes a night, a golden opportunity for him to show the basketball world that Linsanity in New York was no joke. Upon being traded to the Lakers this summer from the Houston Rockets, Lin made it clear the past was behind him.

Via the Los Angles Times' Mike Bresnhan:

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I’m not trying to relive that banner season and I think that’s been a big weight off my shoulder. I’m not trying to recreate a ‘Linsanity. I’m not trying to be that phenomenon that happened in New York. I just want to be myself more than ever.

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Despite missing a couple of weeks with sore ankles, Lin has looked impressive during the preseason for L.A. At 6’3”, 200 pounds, Lin is quick enough and strong enough to get into the paint and create plays for teammates off the dribble.

As Magic Johnson tweeted during the Lakers recent preseason win over the Portland Trail Blazers:

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Jeremy Lin is going to be a good starting PG for the Lakers w/ his ability to get in the lane and create shots for himself & his teammates.

-@MagicJohnson, 8:28 PM - 22 Oct 2014

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Lin may have fallen out of favor in Houston, yet he still managed to improve his three-point shooting to a career-high 36 percent while playing 29 minutes and averaging 12.5 points and 4.1 assists per game.

Where Lin stands to also help the Lakers is as a defender. He should make it difficult for opponents to get past that first line of defense.

Byron Scott, via TWC Sports Net interview right before he was named Lakers head coach: 

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I like Jeremy, I really do. I think he’s a kid that plays the right way [and] plays extremely hard. He seems to always be in attack mode offensively. [He] pushes the ball up the floor as well as anybody in the league. Defensively – the thing that I thought was going to his biggest downfall – was something that I thought he really competed at the times I coached against him.

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3. All Eyes on the 36-Year-Old Kobe Bryant

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What injury? Have you watched Kobe Bryant during the preseason?

Is this the same guy who played in just six games last year and suffered two major, career-threatening injuries in the past 18 months. And, oh right, happens to be 36-years-old?

It's one and the same. It would appear that the Black Mamba is sufficiently prepared to open his 19th year in the NBA with a legitimate shot at proving wrong the critics who think time has passed him by.

This guy thrives on motivational fodder. Real or imagined.

ESPN’s annual ranking of NBA players dropped Bryant from 25 last year to 40 this season. His reaction?:

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I’ve known for a long time they’re a bunch of idiots. I tend to use things as motivation that tend to be in the realm of reality.

(per Mark Medina, Inside SoCal)

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How many times during his Hall of Fame career has Bryant been cornered, vilified, left for dead or just plain trashed as being uncoachable and a bad teammate? A recent ESPN The Magazine feature and related video by writer Henry Abbott paint a bleak picture of a lost franchise that’s put all its collective eggs into the Bryant basket, only to see the rest of the league turn away in sarcastic laughter and disgust.

Per ESPNLA.com, Jovan Buha, Bryant said:

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It's not the first one and it won't be the last one. One thing I've come to understand over the years is that you'll have a bad story that comes out on a Monday and it seems like it's the end of the world and it seems like everybody's taking shots at you. But time goes by and then you look back on it and it was just a Monday.

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As always, Bryant will let his play on the court do the talking. He may not be the easiest superstar in the game to get along with, placing tough demands on his teammates, much as he does on himself.

But, the guess here is that, if healthy, Bryant will look and play more like a guy in the top 10 than number 40. He should average in the neighborhood of 23 points, four rebounds and four assists a game for the Lakers.

The last laugh may very well come from one of the top 10 players to ever lace up a pair of basketball shoes.

4. Will Jordan Clarkson Break Through at Point Guard?

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The Lakers feel they got a steal drafting former Missouri guard Jordan Clarkson with the 46th overall pick this past June.

And Clarkson feels he should have been drafted higher. He plays with the proverbial chip on his shoulder, a good thing in the eyes of his coach.

At 6’5”, Clarkson has all the potential in the world to become a solid NBA combo guard and that’s about all you can ask of a 22-year-old rookie just getting his feet wet.

Now that Steve Nash has been declared out for the entire season, the Lakers head into their home opener with just three PGs on the roster. That bodes well for Clarkson, who scored six points on 3-5 shooting in 15 minutes of action against the Phoenix Suns earlier this week.

Veteran Ronnie Price has seen a lot of minutes this month in the PG role as Jeremy Lin sat out with an ankle injury. It’s assumed Clarkson and Price will battle for minutes off the bench as a backup.

Per Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times on Clarkson’s upside:

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The 46th overall selection had a great off-season and impressed Lakers coaches at the Las Vegas summer league. One team insider thinks Clarkson could push for the starting job at point guard later in the season.

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In five Summer League games, Clarkson averaged 15.8 points and five rebounds. His tip-in at the buzzer off a missed shot by Julius Randle won a Summer League game against the Golden State Warriors. 

From assistant head coach Mark Madsen:

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I think Jordan Clarkson had a tremendous summer league. I think he was one of the top players, not only on the Lakers team, but here at the Las Vegas Summer League. I loved Jordan Clarkson's energy, I loved his enthusiasm for the game and I loved his ability to learn.

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5. Ed Davis: Defensive Stalwart May Surprise on Offense

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Ed Davis, the enforcer. Sounds good, let's see if it sticks.

We’ve seen it already – the tremendous wingspan that allows him to soar above the rim and block numerous shots. Per Inside SoCal.com's Mark Medina, head coach Byron Scott likes what he sees so far:

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The thing he gives us is protect the rim. He’s a good shot blocker, defender and scores around the basket enough. He gets the shots and rebounds the ball as well. He gives us a different dimension.

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The former University of North Carolina standout signed a two-year, $2 million with the Lakers this summer because he saw it as an opportunity to kick start a stagnant NBA career.

Davis showed signs of his potential during the 2012-13 season, when he averaged 10 points and seven rebounds in 24 minutes per game for the Toronto Raptors. But, after 45 games, he was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies, which could not have been worse for his growth.

Davis found his way to the end of the bench. His potential was untapped, largely because he played behind Marc Gasol and Zack Randolph, two of the better big men in the NBA.

The Lakers knew Davis could rebound and block shots. But, what they are also seeing, as noted in the aforementioned Medina piece, is an on-court, offensive chemistry with point guard Jeremy Lin. Davis has been quick to adjust to Lin’s propensity for the pick and roll, getting numerous easy buckets.

In fact, heading into the Lakers’ final preseason game Friday night against the Sacramento Kings, Davis led the team in field-goal percentage (71.4) and was second in the league in blocked shots (2.3 per game).

6. Jordan Hill finally fulfilling his promise

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Eyebrows immediately raised when the Lakers signed center Jordan Hill to an $18 million, two-year contract this summer.

Upon further inspection, though, it became apparent that L.A. had not really overcommitted on the deal, as only the first year of $9 million is guaranteed. The second year is a team option, meaning Hill could be trait bait as early as February.

Management’s hope, however, is that the 27-year-old, 6’11” veteran center/forward will finally fulfill the promise he brought to the league when the New York Knicks made him the eighth overall pick of the 2009 NBA draft.

Coincidentally, Hill will be the team’s starting center when L.A. opens its season against former Laker Dwight Howard and the Houston Rockets Tuesday at Staples Center.

Talk about pressure.

Measured on a per-minutes-played basis, Hill has been one of the league’s top big men. Last year was somewhat of a breakout season, in that the former Arizona Wildcat averaged career highs in minutes (20.8), field-goal percentage (54.9 percent), rebounds (7.4) and points (9.7).

The big question now is how well will he do playing 30 minutes or more. If the numbers go up to at least 15 points and 10 rebounds, then the Lakers may have found themselves a center for the next few seasons.

Hill said he stopped drinking this summer and promptly lost 13 pounds. He told Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News that he’s in the best shape of his career and ready for his new role as starter:

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It was that time to step out of my old ways and to grow up. Now I feel really, really good. I can run and down more often. My wind is back. My body feels good. I feel like I could go for days.

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Byron Scott is high on Hill and thinks he'll take his game to another level:

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He is one guy who can play this game without having to have someone run plays for him and can still average a double-double. That’s pretty rare in this league. I think he’s going to have career numbers again this year.

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7. Nick Young: Swagger in Swaggy P Returns Soon

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The Lakers have close to 20 points per game sitting on the trainer's table, just itching to get back into the lineup. Nick Young's return from a freak finger injury should happen sometime in December.

For now, the 6'7" small forward practices while wearing a sling on his injured right arm. According to Young, that won't come off till the middle of November.

Assuming that Young's shooting hand recovers fully—the diagnosis was a torn radial collateral ligament in his right thumb—the Lakers should see a dramatic improvement in their overall ability to score points. Young's presence, especially coming off the bench, is that critical to the team's fortunes.

Young signed a four-year, $21.5 million deal with the Lakers this summer. His was the only long-term deal given to a player by the team. It was to reward Young's superior season playing for a struggling team.

Young averaged a career-high 17.9 points on 44 percent shooting in 64 games last year for the Lakers. He made 39 percent of his long-distance shots and perfected the art of the four-point play.

At the time of his signing, Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak issued a statement thanking Young for his outstanding season. 

Per ESPNLA.com, Kupchak said:

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When Nick became a free agent in June, I expressed hope that we would be able to bring him back on a contract that was in the best interest of both the Lakers and himself, and I am proud to say we were able to do so. Nick was a bright spot for us last season, and we are happy to retain such a skilled player who is committed to being a part of what we are building as a franchise.

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Now they just need him on the court. If the Young from last season returns, that could translate into at least another six to 10 wins for a Laker team that will be desperate for victories.