Lakers: Optimism, Hope Have Devolved Into Disappointment

The once hopeful 2015-16 season for the Lakers has turned into systematic and cyclical disappointment and frustration

Remember a time in July, fresh off the Los Angeles Lakers selecting point guard D’Angelo Russell with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, when there was legitimate optimism about the Lakers? Not in the sense that this team was going to be in contention for a title, but rather that this season could start to see progress as the core of the future took the floor and started to develop.

We’re now 50 games into the season and, after winning only nine games and fresh off of tying the franchise record for the longest losing streak in history, that optimism has been beaten into submission. Now, fans and players are left in a hopeless state of disappointment and frustration.

After the loss to a short-handed Charlotte Hornets team in STAPLES Center on Sunday night, Russell was quite candid when talking to reporters after the game. When asked about learning opportunities after games like the one against Charlotte, the rookie responded by saying that there is a chance to learn, but that there have been the same opportunities numerous times throughout the season and nothing has changed.

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And therein lies the root of the problem with the Lakers right now. There is obvious room to grow, an apparent need to shake up the status quo. But because of a stubborn head coach in Byron Scott, a front office seemingly misguided in terms of what they need to do to remedy the issues in Los Angeles, and even the team being held hostage by the Kobe Bryant farewell tour, nothing’s changing.

Scott is by far the easiest target and the culprit with the reddest hands in all of this. Not only is he consistently rolling out the same lineups and same rotational patterns with the results remaining lackluster, but he’s actively contradicting himself in the process.

Against the Dallas Mavericks last week, Scott pulled Russell for the final two minutes of a close game. After the game, Byron stated that he did so because he felt that the No. 2 pick was “trying to take over the game” and that the rookie’s confidence was getting dangerously close to “cockiness.” Just days late after the loss to the Hornets on Sunday, Scott then lamented the fact that his players weren’t playing with confidence anymore. If that seems undeniably paradoxical, that’s because it is.

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In fairness, Scott’s not wrong that his players don’t have the same level of confidence individually and in the team that they may have earlier in the season. After the Charlotte loss, Russell said that he felt that his improvement had become somewhat stagnant, or at least more so than it was earlier in the year. But it’s also impossible to deny that Scott has had a major hand in stifling that confidence and improvement.

That’s a substantial problem for a young, rebuilding team to have, though, and is indicative of this cyclical failure that the Lakers are currently stuck in this season. While you can tell players to “man up” or whatever else, Byron not taking any actual action to change these issues has resulted in this deflated confidence and ultimate disappointment. If you need any evidence of how glaringly this team is mired in repetitive failure and crushing of spirits, Scott is even now using the same clichés to describe his team as his post-practice quotes on Monday featured some recycled vernacular:

Byron Scott said a losing streak tells him who he wants in his “foxhole” & “who’s going to come every night & be ready to fight & battle."
— Baxter Holmes (@Baxter) February 1, 2016

It’s these intangible clichés thrown out as possible solutions or as the reasons for problems that are the most frustrating part for fans and the team. This isn’t World War I and this isn’t a self-help seminar—foxholes and talk about confidence aren’t going to do a damn thing if there isn’t action behind it. And there hasn’t been from Scott, the rest of the coaching staff, or the front office.

This isn’t World War I and this isn’t a self-help seminar—foxholes and talk about confidence aren’t going to do a damn thing if there isn’t action behind it.

Rather than taking action, it’s been a stubbornly instituted pattern both in terms of the system played out on the hardwood and the way things are handled off of the court. Scott’s style of play and ideologies about his team come from a bygone era in the NBA, yet he refuses to acknowledge such a thing or take any personal responsibility when his system on the court or his coaching methods don’t have the desired effect.

And really, this isn’t going to change until there is either a mandate to shake things up for the rest of the season coming down from the front office or a pink slip handed to Byron from the front office. While fans have pined for the obvious changes that need to be made with this team, Scott has remained blind to them either through incompetence or being bull-headed.

When or if such changes will happen is up in the air, though. You would think that 9-41 would be enough firm ground to stand on to substantiate such changes, but it’s just been the same problems time and again. Russell is still coming off of the bench, Julius Randle is only in the starting lineup because Larry Nance Jr. is injured, Tarik Black is still being made inexplicably inactive, and the Lakers head coach is still refusing to take blame or admit fault for any of this.

Fan were right to be optimistic about the Lakers this season, even if winning was never the primary objective. With the talent, youth, and position of the team heading into the year, those feelings of hope were warranted because there was an open path available that would’ve seen the organization take great strides toward future success.

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Instead, the team is left trotting in circles with Byron Scott in his foxhole barking out orders to keep on the same course.