How Good Are The Los Angeles Lakers?

How Good Are The Los Angeles Lakers?

Before the season started, I called the Los Angeles Lakers the NBA’s biggest wild card. And 24 games into the year, I’m feeling pretty good about that description. At the time of recording, they are 17-7, which is a 71.4 win percentage, putting them on pace for 58 wins in an absolute bloodbath of a Western Conference. Obviously, that’s pretty damn good, but there have been reasons to be not so optimistic. The West is stacked at the top as even on a 58- win pace, the Lakers are tied for the fourth seed with the Spurs after losing to them handedly in the NBA Cup Wednesday night. Despite being tied for the fifth best win percentage in the NBA, they are only ranked 14th in net rating, which suggests that they are worse than their early season record would indicate. And of course, at the very top of the West is possibly the greatest team of all time. Keyword possibly, time will tell, but it’s looking pretty good. So, the bar for being a true contender is as high as it has ever been in the 2020s. At the same time, they have dealt with a lot of injuries and lineup changes and yet they’ve rarely faltered and they have possibly the most gifted offensive starting five in the entire NBA. So, are the Lakers legit contenders or are they just a really good regular season team? Let’s talk about it. But first, I want to talk about our sponsor factor. I have always needed to be fast and flexible for my schedule. And in the past, that would mean sacrificing delicious, affordable food for the quickest possible option, but Factor changed that with fresh, never frozen meals delivered right to my door. And then all it takes is just 2 minutes in the microwave and my meal is ready. Not only is Factor convenient, but it also takes the guesswork out of eating smart for everyone. Eating clean and portion control have never been so easy with meals that are 350 to 550 calories per serving. And Factor just introduced its healthiest menu yet, doubling the size to 80 plus rotating weekly meals with double the seafood and protein options and even more Mediterranean meals than ever. So head to factor75.com or click the link below and use code also rustyf50 to get 50% off plus free breakfast for one year. That’s code also rusty fb50 at factor75.com to get 50% off plus free breakfast for one year. Thank you so much to Factor for sponsoring this video. As of right now, the Lakers are seventh in offensive rating, which is pretty good, but mildly disappointing for what this team is capable of on that end. I do think they could be better, but something I’m unfortunately not all that surprised by is they are 21st in defensive rating. I kind of expected them to be more so middle of the pack and they were a little bit earlier on into the year and that’s just because JJ Reic last year when they traded for Luca Donic, the Lakers still managed to be one of the 10 best defenses in the entire NBA. I did feel like their defensive scheme was really gimmicky and that opponents would figure it out and it would not be as effective in the playoffs. And then exactly that became true versus the Minnesota Timberwolves. So, I wasn’t expecting them to be quite as good as they were at the tail end of last season defensively. But I did expect better than this. JJ has shown to be a really smart defensive coach, at least in the small sample that we have seen. So, it’s possible that this turns around, but frankly, there’s just not a lot of strong defenders on this team, and that’s ultimately going to hurt you. Luca Donuch is of course putting up monstrous numbers, but if you know me, I don’t really feel like that’s actually good in terms of winning basketball. What I did say earlier this year in my uh the Luca Revenge Tour has begun video, I am in favor of Luca averaging 35 because it’s fun. When we’re talking about just actually what’s good for winning basketball games, historically, if you average 35 points per game or anything near it, your team ain’t going to do [ __ ] Almost always like scoring title players basically never win championships. The timing of this is funny because Shay Gildis Alexander just did it. But otherwise, Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal are the only players who have done that in the modern era. I think Kareem might have as well. I need to refresh myself on the numbers, but like yeah, that just doesn’t happen. You if you have a guy averaging as many points as Luca is, it is highlighting a deficiency with your team. Now, I don’t think it’s as dramatic as that because of course Luca is gunning for it. he is really going for everybody’s heads this year after what happened with the whole I don’t know if you heard the Mavericks traded Luca to the Lakers uh and he’s been going on his revenge tour and I get that but in terms of like what will actually be viable in a playoff setting 359 and9 those incredible stats for him but it’s probably indicative that the rest of the roster is not carrying their own weight. He’s also averaging 4.3 turnovers, which is a careerhigh. And his three-point shooting, which was abysmal earlier, has been getting better, but it’s still pisses me off a lot of the time. He is averaging 10.6 three-point attempts per game, which is the most in the NBA, while he is shooting just 33.7%, which is probably not even the top 50. So, he’s the most prolific three-point shooter in the game while being nowhere near the best. He is shooting 58 and a half% from two, which for 12 and a half attempts per game as a guard is really, really nuts. That’s really only rivaled by Shay Gillis Alexander. He is also shooting 80% from the line, which is a careerhigh. And his 12.2 free throw attempts per game, if it stands, if that’s what he ends up averaging by the time the year is over, is the most free throw attempts anyone will have ever averaged. He is by far and away leading the league in them. And just as a quick sidebar, interesting how that double standard works. What is it about Luca where the foul baiting is not complained about, but with Shay it is? H LeBron has been very hit or miss in his return. I kind of overreacted. I definitely overreacted to his game versus the Raptors where he scored eight points and shot four for 17. However, uh I do think a lot of why he’s been better since then is just that he benefits a lot from not having to be the second option. So, I still think LeBron is very definitively the third option on this team, and I still don’t think he’ll average much more than 20 points per game, but ultimately, he is a positive offensive player. Hasn’t really brought it defensively in the way that he did at the latter half of last season. Hopefully, he turns that around as he gets more and more comfortable recovering from sciatica. Overall, LeBron’s still going to be very impactful, even if he’s not top 15 player in the NBA impactful like he was even for a good portion of last year. The Lakers starting lineup in 76 minutes this year are 9.3 points worse than opponents, which is definitely not all that encouraging. It shows that yeah, there’s a lot of offense there, but there’s also virtually zero defense. Now, when you throw that same lineup together, but instead of LeBron James, you sub in Marcus Smart, which is the lineup the Lakers started the year with, they’re plus 10 and a half. So, having that just one defensive guy in there goes a long way. Now, you can use that to be like, is LeBron making them worse? But I really think the answer is that they should find a different wing besides for Rui Hachimura. Ruy is a really good offensive player, but he’s just fine on the defensive end. And normally, I wouldn’t really have a problem with that because likely there is some other player on the team who is making up for just the overall mediocrity of him as a perimeter defender. But that’s not here. The other guys on the perimeter are Austin Reeds, Luca Donuch, and a nearly 41-year-old LeBron with back problems. Like, it’s just there’s not a single really good defender in there. And I think just if instead of Ruie, it was just as an example, cuz they’ve been rumored to trade for him, Herb Jones, it would go so so far and you would have a far more balanced lineup. Like I don’t think the Lakers are better with Marcus Smart instead of LeBron, but it is a far more balanced lineup and that is important. DeAndre Aan has been a great offensive addition. Like his floater range shot, any quick post up short mid-range shots, he has just been absolutely lights out. and he he has one of the best push shots in the entire game, which makes him a really effective play finisher on this team that has so many great playmakers between their big three. Now, I do wish he was a better defender and even rebounder. This is the first time in his career that he has not averaged double-digit rebounds, and he’s played 29 minutes a game before, so it’s not even a less minutes thing. He’s averaged 10 with those amount of minutes. As of right now, he’s averaging 15 and a half points, 8.8 eight rebounds, one block, and he is shooting 70% from two while only taking 1.6 free throw attempts per game. That [ __ ] drives me [ __ ] nuts, but we’re going to have to move on. Ruie is in a similar spot because he is having a career year offensively, but like I said, I’d really prefer a strong defensive wing in his place. Of course, how legit the Lakers ultimately end up being, I would say, lies on Austin Reeves shoulders more so than any other player or any other aspect of this team because he’s been scorching. And I think that’s why they’ve been so good despite a lot of weaknesses on the margins. He is putting up 28 points, 5 and a half rebounds, 6.7 assists to 3.3 turnovers. Not a great ratio, but it’s also not awful as a secondary playmaker. He is shooting 36.9% from three on 7.6 six attempts per game. So that’s pretty good efficiency on really good volume. Also 61.3% on his two-pointers at 9.2 attempts, which is elite for a small guard. He is also shooting 87 and a half% from the free throw line, taking 9.1 attempts per game. Uh yeah, the between Reeves and Luca, they are averaging 21 free throw attempts per game, which might make you go, “Oh, well, it’s just the [ __ ] Lakers.” Uh everybody else in total is averaging seven. It’s just that those two guys are so damn good at getting to the basket, but also selling calls and even grifting a couple of them. Regardless of how you feel about the ethics of it, it is decent offense. Now, can Austin maintain this during the season? I think absolutely. Like the amount of people who were completely blindsided by Austin being as good as he is is really perplexing to me because there was plenty of evidence to suggest that he could elevate his game at this level. Especially in the absence of LeBron James because historically whenever Austin Reeves has to be the first option or even the second option, he oftent times averages like 25 plus points. So, it’s not that shocking to me that he’s averaging 27. And it’s not that shocking to me that he’s getting to the free throw line a lot because he has showcased that ability before. It’s not that shocking to me that he’s averaging nearly seven assists per game because he has shown to be a really strong playmaker before. Like nothing about what Austin Reeves is doing, he did not showcase before. But in the playoffs last year, he was relegated to just a spot shooter and he was okay at that role, but it was rather limiting to what he is capable of on that end. When he would try and attack off of the dribble, it went okay, but it often times went poorly. So, I do think that the difference this year will be that he will be definitively the second option on the team. So, he should get extra ball handling opportunities as opposed to what happened in last year’s playoffs. But, we will have to see. Like I was really interested to see what Austin would do in last year’s playoffs because that was the first time he’s averaged 20. I think he averaged like 15 16 the year before which is indicative of like yeah he can score but I’m not necessarily having crazy high playoff expectations. I was having damn near star level expectations for Austin Reeds last year and he did not live up to them. I think that’s mostly the fault of how the Lakers went about their offense in that series, less so him, but that is the area of concern. If he can maintain this level of production going into the playoffs, then that opens up a lot of doors that would otherwise be shut. The bench depth on this team is kind of ass. Marcus Mart and Jake Laavia are the only playoff level guys. I think Jackson Hayes is a fine backup center, but not somebody who I want to play more than literally like 8 minutes in a playoff game. And there is just no offense from that bench. The starters combined. Obviously, they haven’t all played together that much. So, like the numbers would be a little bit different if I was just looking at like post getting LeBron, but that’s a pain in the ass to get. What I’m saying as a total, the starting five averages 108.1 points per game. like all of their offense is coming from their starters. And I just don’t know that that’s super ideal. I actually just thought of this on the spot. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it earlier when talking about the lineup balancing. Obviously, you could trade for Herb Jones. I would highly encourage it if that’s a possibility, but but you could also put Ruie on the bench, put Marcus Smart in the starting lineup. I know you’d be a little bit small cuz Marcus Smart would be essentially playing the small forward position, but I don’t know. Marcus Smart’s a better defender than Ruie, even if he’s 3 in shorter. I’d be curious to see what a Luca Reeves smart LeBron eight in lineup looks like. And of course, that would lead to a more balanced bench offensively speaking because you would have a because you would have Ruie as the six-man. I like that idea a lot. I I don’t know why I didn’t think of that in the writing process for this video. But another thing I need to highlight, this is a shockingly lowass assist team for how great their big three is passing wise. They are only 24th in assist while being 11th in turnovers. I don’t understand this other than the fact that LeBron, a LeBron has not played that much, but then B, there’s not that many guys who are that good at passing besides for those three. Like the guy with the next best passing instincts after their top three players is like Marcus Smart, which is, you know, less than ideal. So even if your top three guys are such amazing passers, having like Ruie and Aan and Lorravia and Dalton connect like guys who are pretty much just going to pass the ball back to them if they do not have a shot. It does limit the overall versatility of the playmaking within the team. So, it does make a little bit of sense that they’re not at the top of the league in assists per game, but I think they can do better than 24th. They are also a poor rebounding team as they are 27th in total rebounds and 28th in offensive rebounds. And in today’s game, offensive rebounds are kind of making a comeback in terms of their importance just because uh first of all, there are more available because of three-point shots because there are longer rebounds. So like guards and wings are getting more offensive rebounds than ever before, but also a three off of an offensive rebound, it it’s basically the best way to get an open three in the game. So being outright terrible at them is a much more noteworthy weakness than I think it would have been a decade ago even. As a result, the Lakers are by far and away the lowest field goal attempt team in the entire league. They are 30th in field goal attempts and they’re taking like 2 and a half less than 29th place. And you know that you might be thinking, oh well that’s just cuz they’re going to the free throw line all the time, but they’re only fourth in free throw attempts. So it’s not even that like they’re not just getting to the line like crazy, so it doesn’t count as a field goal attempt. Luca and Reeves are getting to the line like crazy, but that’s it. They are also a low volume three-point shooting team. They are 24th in attempts. Their percentage is solid, but like that’s just really low volume. So, like they’re entirely almost entirely their offense is banking on the inside the arc scoring which has been scorching hot so far and I’m kind of worried what happens if it’s a little less scorching hot. Of course, I’ve already highlighted like potentially trading for Herb Jones I do think would go a long way. Whatever it might be, I think the Lakers need to make some sort of trade either to round out their bench or ideally do that and add some more defensive presence to the starting lineup. I like DeAndre Aan and Ruy on this team a lot because with your big trio of playmakers, having guys who are good play finishers is really important. And Aan and Ruy are both excellent at that. Whether it is Ruie doing like a one dribble mid-range pull up after a pump fake on the three-point line or a catch and shoot or a cut. He’s really good at that. Aan has the floater, the hook shot on a mismatch, all of that. Like they have that [ __ ] in the bag. But I’d really like if there was a great defender in that lineup. So, in conclusion here, they have one of the best big threes in basketball. No doubt. They have a good coach. They have a superstar player, which is very, very important. And a player of Luca’s caliber goes a long way. I’ve seen a lot of people talking crazy about Luca on Twitter recently for whatever [ __ ] reason. But like, that man led the Mavericks to the finals 2 years ago. I don’t know why we’re acting like his play style can’t result in at least highlevel basketball. Even if it’s not going to bring you a championship, you’re going to be good with with Luca more often than not if he’s in shape, and he is. But the complimentary players on this team are just lacking as defenders, rebounders, and playmakers. They can hit a layup and a cut. They can dunk. They can hit a three. They can occasionally create their own shot. But the stuff that role players are supposed to be good at, defense, rebounding, and like tertiary playmaking, if I’m using that word correctly, I might be just trying to sound smart. Uh, that’s not good. It’s really not good, especially in an NBA that is so predicated on depth. They don’t really do anything well as a team besides for score. And right now, they are doing it on very low amounts of field goal attempts, literally the least in the league. So, if their efficiency waivers even a little bit and the offense gets worse, they don’t have that other [ __ ] to fall back onto to make them still a competitive team. For my prediction for the Lakers this year, obviously we are 24 games in. These opinions are subject to change based on what we see. Maybe the most annoying thing about early season discourse to me is that like people treat it like your opinion is set in stone based on a limited sample. I’m just telling you what I know based on what I’ve seen thus far. Based on what I have seen thus far, if they improve on the margins, if they can become an average rebounding team, an average defensive team, if they can get to middle of the league average in assists per game, if they can just average a couple more offensive rebounds to the point where they’re not at the very bottom of the league in field goal attempts, I think they could give OKC somewhat of a series. They’re not going to be able to match OKC’s defense to be sure because literally [ __ ] no one can. But but there is at least the possibility that they can hang offensively for like two games. Like I think they could make it interesting. But if they don’t improve on the margins, not only do I not think this team’s a contender, I don’t even know if they would be that good of a regular season team. like they could very well be on their way to having a much worse record than their 17-7 start would indicate. They have been not as good lately. I do think it’s an adjustment period with LeBron and not so much that like he just outright makes them worse, but it’s not looked good as of late and I’m kind of more inclined to be pessimistic than positive. I will say the number one thing that does make me feel a little bit positive about them is that their perseverance through all of the lineup changes has been so good. Like they’ve won with just Austin Reeves. They’ve won with just Luca. They’ve won with Austin and LeBron. Uh they’ve won with I think also uh LeBron and Luca. No, Austin. Has that happened yet? It probably will. And they’ll still probably be decent there. like they have managed to have some key players miss out and still win games. And that to me is the mark of a true contender. So, if there is anything to point to to say this team is that legit, it would be that. But literally everything else is a red flag to me. I just don’t think they can beat OKC. And that’s not a knock on the Lakers. I kind of think that Thunder just have it. Like they’re 25 and one, dude. What do you even say to that? I would also probably still take Denver and probably Houston as well, but yeah, I’m I’m not I’m not saying they’re contenders yet. I’m open to the possibility. I really need to see them improve at the things that aren’t offense, though, because yeah, the NBA is more offense than defense, but you can’t be the 20th something defense in the NBA and compete with the OKC godamn Thunder. Like, that’s just it’s just not going to work out. So, yeah, that’s my thoughts on the Lakers. Let me know what you guys think in the comments section down below. Lakers fans or otherwise, Lakers videos are always tense. I know they’ll do well, but Lakers fans are mean, man. And I’m just trying to be realistic here. Uh, but yeah, that’s it. Thank you so much for watching and goodbye.

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