Los Angeles Lakers: Power ranking the current players on the roster

8-6: The Lakers 3 Veterans

8. Lance Stephenson

Lance has been a pleasant surprise. I didn’t know if the crazy blow in your ear Lance was going to show up or the play as hard as possible Lance would arrive. Luckily Lance hasn’t had any maturity issues on the Lakers.

Lance is tied for 4th on the Lakers in Defensive Win Shares and he’s also tied for 4th in Defensive Rating. Sometimes he pounds the ball too much on offense, but his perimeter defense has been great. He never takes a play off and he closes out on 3-point shooters better than anybody on the Lakers.

7. Rajon Rondo

Dude’s hurt, but he’s played well. He’s shooting 43 percent from behind the arc on 3.5 shots per game. Damn, that pretty good! He’s second on the team in assists and although I’d like to see him shoot more layups, he’s been one of the positives on offense. On the defensive side of the ball he can still play excellent defense, but now, as he’s gotten older he takes a lot of plays off.

6. Tyson Chandler

The Lakers have won seven out of their nine games since Tyson Chandler joined the team, only losing to the Orlando Magic twice. Before Chandler joined the Lakers they were ranked 27th in Defensive Efficiency, now after Chandler’s been on the team for nine games, they’re ranked 11th. Is that a coincidence? No.

Chandler’s stats aren’t impressive, but he does all the little things it takes for a team to win. He sets huge screens, swats out offensive rebounds, and he plays excellent positional defense. If Tyson Chandler had been on the Lakers since Day 1 of the season, they would have won both their games against the Spurs giving the Lakers a 13-6 record, good for 1st place in the west.