The Biggest Hurdles Los Angeles Lakers Will Have to Clear During 2014-15
Time is not on the side of the Los Angeles Lakers, but time is all they really have.
It’s been almost 60 years since the Lakers were this bad. At 0-5 to start the season and with no clear turnaround in sight, the Lakers under first-year coach Byron Scott are probably destined to one-up Mike D’Antoni’s 2013-14 team, which set a new mark for futility with 55 losses.
As Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated wrote in the magazine’s November 10 issue, "After winning 16 championships, including five in the past 15 years, the Lakers might now be the worst NBA team west of Philadelphia."
Former All-Star and current TNT analyst Charles Barkley was emphatic about tying his new diet to Lakers victories by saying, "I'm not going to eat another meal until the Lakers win a game." After learning just how difficult the Lakers' schedule looks the next few weeks, Barkley backtracked and said, "Let me rethink that."
The worst start in NBA history belongs to the 2009-10 New Jersey Nets, who went 18 games without a win before finally beating someone. L.A. has a ways to go to top that dubious distinction, but if the Lakers can’t defeat the Charlotte Hornets Sunday at home, they could easily run their losing streak to 10 or more before finding a way to win.
The Lakers have plenty of hurdles to overcome this season just to resemble a competitive NBA team.
More than likely, Kobe Bryant and company's attempt at respectability turns further south, and the team ends up a bottom-five lottery participant. Given their current roster, the hurdles just look too big to overcome this season.
A growing number of analysts are even suggesting the Lakers bite the bullet and deal Kobe Bryant, something that would only happen if No. 24 went to management and demanded it.
Here is Sports Illustrated's Matt Dollinger on the Lakers' dismal start: "The Lakers might be the worst team in the NBA (the 76ers don't count). If Kobe Bryant is content to fire away for an also-ran (he's averaging 21.3 shots), he'll ride it out in L.A. But if he wants to chase a sixth ring -- or at least a playoff spot -- he'll have to move elsewhere."
Minimize Injuries
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Where is Alex McKechnie when you need him?
The former athletic performance coordinator for the Lakers is now with the Toronto Raptors as assistant coach and director of sports science. During his eight years with the Lakers, McKechnie was an integral member of head trainer Gary Vitti’s staff and played a key role in keeping players on the court and away from the trainer's table.
Phil Jackson tweeted about McKechnie's importance (h/t Bleacher Report's Sean Hojnacki) when noting the slew of Lakers injuries last year. Vitti is a legendary trainer and 30-year member of the staff, but since McKechnie left, the Lakers have given new meaning to the word "injury."
According to Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times, Lakers players lost 319 games to various injuries last year, a league high. With Steve Nash and Julius Randle both ruled out for the entire season and Nick Young nursing a bruised thumb, Lakers players will lose at least 180 games this year.
Whether the injuries are a result of poor training regimens or just bad luck, the Lakers need healthy players in order to compete. Getting Young back in December should help stabilize what is currently an anemic Lakers bench.
Ryan Kelly, Jordan Clarkson, Jordan Hill and Jeremy Lin have all been nursing minor ailments but will need to play through them and contribute. Losing players at an alarming rate only compounds the fact that the team lacks talent.
Swiss-Cheese Defense
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Is it time for Ed Davis to replace Carlos Boozer in the starting lineup?
Boozer has been a non-factor on defense for the Lakers, who are 30th overall in surrendering an eye-popping 116.8 points per game. Their point differential of minus-14.8 is also worst in the NBA.
Granted, the Lakers' porous defense is not solely the fault of Boozer. He has never been known as a defensive powerhouse, but he’s been downright terrible on that end of the floor since opening the season. For a starting power forward averaging over 26 minutes a game, Boozer should be bringing down more than 5.6 rebounds.
Davis, on the other hand, has been impressive, averaging seven rebounds and 1.4 blocks in 23 minutes per game for the Lakers. He and center Jordan Hill would make for a better defensive tandem, though it appears Byron Scott wants to give Boozer more time to step up that part of his game.
Rebounding is certainly not the only issue for the Lakers on defense. The team can’t seem to stop the three-pointer, and the opposition connects on 42 percent of its shots from that range. That ranks 29th in the league.
The Lakers are still having big problems guarding quick, penetrating point guards even with Scott’s help-the-helper defense. Jeremy Lin has proven to be an adequate defender in the past but has yet to demonstrate it as a Laker.
And Bryant, at age 36, plays defense more like a free safety in football, choosing who to guard and when. To watch the Lakers on defense is painful—they react too late, don't cover their man well and allow way too many open looks at the basket.
Lacking a True Center
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It was thought that Dwight Howard would occupy the center position in Los Angeles for many years. After that experiment blew up in their collective faces, the Lakers turned to Jordan Hill.
At 6’10”, 235 pounds, the fifth-year pro is considered undersized by NBA standards. Banging bodies with guys 30-40 pounds heavier night after night may take its toll on Hill, who otherwise plays well enough to warrant his 30 minutes per game.
In five losses, Hill is averaging 15 points on 53 percent shooting for the Lakers. He also averages 9.2 rebounds and is a high-energy presence who cleans up loose balls around the rim and has an improving mid-range jump shot.
Signed to a two-year, $18 million extension over the summer that has a team option on the second year, Hill is playing well enough that other teams may look to acquire him before this season’s trade deadline in February.
The only true center in L.A. is Robert Sacre. The 7-footer is scrappy and has a decent shot from about 5-7 feet but will never ascend to being more than a second option at the position.
Not Enough Playoff Experience After Kobe
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Outside of Kobe Bryant and Carlos Boozer, the Lakers are novices when it comes to championship experience.
Boozer has been in 83 playoff games during his career, averaging 17 points and 11 rebounds, but has never been to the Finals.
After Bryant and Boozer, the cupboard is bare.
Jordan Hill has played in 15 postseason games, all with the Lakers. Jeremy Lin has 10 games under his belt, including six last year with the Houston Rockets. Wesley Johnson has never appeared in a playoff game, and top sub Nick Young experienced four games with the Washington Wizards and 11 with the L.A. Clippers.
The Lakers hope that players can learn from the experiences of Bryant (220 games, two NBA Finals MVP Awards and five rings) and head coach Byron Scott (three rings and back-to-back appearances in the Finals as coach of the New Jersey Nets).
Historically, teams with several veterans who have gone deep in the playoffs are teams that know how to win when it counts. A healthy Steve Nash would help, but he's not even spending time on the Lakers bench as he sits out the season with back issues.
Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News wrote this about Nash's absence: "The Lakers have currently allowed Nash to stay away from the team since his season-ending injury. But the Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak, coach Byron Scott and teammates have all expressed hope Nash could serve as a mentor for the Lakers’ younger players."
Nash instead has been taking to the golf course, as recently seen in a clip he posted on Instagram (since deleted). Nash tried to explain (per Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times) why that was OK, but it did nothing to assuage the concern of fans who feel he should at least be a mentor to a team still paying him close to $10 million:
"There is an incredible difference between this game and swinging a golf club, hiking, even hitting a tennis ball or playing basketball at the park. Fortunately those other activities aren't debilitating, but playing an NBA game usually puts me out a couple of weeks. Once you're asked to accelerate and decelerate with Steph Curry and Kyrie Irving it is a completely different demand.
"
That's good to know, but the team could surely use his playoff experience as it struggles through what could be its worst season ever.
Playing in the Western Conference
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This would certainly be the biggest hurdle for the Lakers.
Even on nights when they play well, the Lakers will have a tough time beating a majority of the teams in the Western Conference.
All but three teams in the conference would seem to have more talent and should beat the Lakers on most nights. The Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs, New Orleans Pelicans, Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, L.A. Clippers, Phoenix Suns and Oklahoma City Thunder should battle among themselves for eight playoff berths.
The Lakers, Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves may very well fight to stay out of the cellar. The Spurs, Clippers, Thunder and Grizzlies all should be considered strong candidates to make it to the Finals, with the Blazers and Mavericks long-shot possibilities.
Marc Stein's take on the league after four games includes this on the Lakers: "After each of the Lakers' three 0-3 starts since moving to L.A. in 1960, they rallied to win the fourth game and went on to make the playoffs. But this is the first time, despite everything Kobe's trying, that they've started a season with four straight L's since going 0-7 in Minneapolis in 1957-58."
Given their unimpressive first five games, the Lakers may be hard-pressed to win more than 15 for the entire season. And though most players have a built-in, innate mechanism that seeks to be competitive and win, the best outcome for such a struggling team would be to finish in the bottom five.
That would secure a lottery pick for the Lakers as they continue on a slow march back to respectability.
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