The Los Angeles Lakers have played 22 out of 82 regular season games to this point and have a 12-10 record. Under new head coach JJ Redick, it’s been a mixed bag of extremely good basketball, some bad, and then downright ugly on a few occasions in a number of different areas.
Here, we give our quarterly grades for the team and what’s been working but also what needs improvement.
Los Angeles Lakers Grade Of Offense: B-
As a whole, the Lakers offense has had a good season so far although the last seven games have been rocky.
In the first 14 games, Los Angeles ranked near the top 10 in offensive efficiency averaging 117 points per game. In the last seven, they’ve had a major drop off only averaging 98.8 points. What’s led to this?
It’s been a combination of several things: injuries to key players and a recent lack of production from their two big guns: LeBron James and Anthony Davis. On top of that, turnovers and no perimeter shooting.
Injuries Continue To Mount
Starting with injuries, the injury bug has bitten them quite a bit recently. Both starting guards Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell have missed the last few games with injuries, so that gives ball-handling responsibility to LeBron James and disrupts the system the Lakers want to play: a lot of player and ball movement.
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On top of that, Russell and Reaves are both critical to provide scoring, especially from the perimeter. Once they both return, that side of the ball should improve.
Jared Vanderbilt is a major piece to the Los Angeles Lakers’ perimeter defense and he has not played all season after having foot surgery in the offseason. There is no timetable for his return. If/when he gets back this season, that should hopefully stabilize things.
AD And LeBron’s Struggles
Davis has had an outstanding season thus far leading the team in scoring and rebounding, averaging 27.8 points and 11.5 rebounds per game. Lately, however, it’s been a struggle as Davis has not scored 20 or more in four of the last seven games. In order for the offense to be clicking on all cylinders, Davis has to be the focal point.
As far as LeBron goes, he’s been terrible in four of the last five games as he has not made a single three-pointer in any of them. Let that sink in. Now to address the elephant in the room: turnovers.
Los Angeles Lakers Turnovers
That is what’s really killing the offense lately and has led to the regression. Coach Redick had been adamant about taking care of the basketball. Unfortunately, the Lakers have not done well with that.
In six of the last seven games, they have committed 12 or more turnovers. LeBron by himself has had five or more turnovers in the last seven games.
For the offense to flow, cut the turnovers and get back to moving the ball. It’s that simple. Turnovers have also led to poor play on the next topic: defense.
Los Angeles Lakers Grade Of Defense: D
Although the defense has been getting better the last few games, the effort defensively the entire season has not been good. They have struggled mightily with transition defense in particular. If you can’t make any shots, that leads to the opposing team getting out in transition and running the floor to get easy layups or wide-open three-pointers.
The Los Angeles Lakers currently rank 22nd in average points allowed per game, giving up 115.
Another big issue has been rebounding. As alluded to earlier, one of the Lakers’ key big men, Jared Vanderbilt has not played yet this season. He’s another one of the guys alongside Anthony Davis who can help clean the glass.
The Los Angeles Lakers rank 27th in rebounds per game, only averaging 41.
Now that those main issues have been addressed, what grade do we give coaching?
Grade Of Coaching: C+… For Now
JJ Redick has a system in place and it seems to be working. The Lakers rank 12th in average assists per game, with 26.4. Just keep passing the ball, create opportunities, and do not get stagnant.
When the ball is moving and Anthony Davis is the focal point, everything runs smoothly. LeBron can just pick and choose his spots and then when he gets rolling, it opens up the floor for everyone else, particularly on the perimeter.
Lately, with all the injuries, the question for Redick and the coaching staff is, how do they get other guys to perform their best and contribute whether it’s making plays on offense or defense? The roster is what it is and no major upgrades can really be made right now so it’s going to take a full team effort to get back on track.
It starts with coaching the team to limit turnovers and getting back in transition defensively. If those two things get cleaned up, the Los Angeles Lakers will be a much better team.