Los Angeles Lakers: Growing pains and early adjustments

The Los Angeles Lakers have experienced some ups and downs to begin the season as the players continue to adjust to each other.

This Los Angeles Lakers team, in the early onset, has shown that they can compete with anyone across the association. Conversely, they have also demonstrated that they can lose to anyone as well.

In part, that is the nature of today’s NBA. One thing that has always been true of the NBA; no matter how bad a team is, they will have capable guards that can put the ball on the floor and create. Regardless of how good your bigs are or are not, great guard play can keep you in any game. That’s basketball at any level.

That is what this Lakers squad has missed since the departure of Rajon Rondo due to injury. There has been a significant drop off in consistent guard play without Rondo in the lineup as Lonzo Ball has seen increased minutes.

Ball, while he has the skillset to be a great point guard in this league at some point, has not yet demonstrated that he can lead a team from start to finish. Evidence of this has been the decision to sit Lonzo late in games in favor of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

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Defensively, since the addition of Tyson Chandler, this team has improved. Early in the season, the second unit saw a significant drop off when JaVale McGee left the floor. That caused a ripple effect in just how impactful Luke Walton could be with his lineup, causing LeBron James to see extended minutes. Since the addition of Tyson Chandler, we have seen his minutes decrease as he currently ranks 15th among players at 35.1 minutes a quarter.

What we are witnessing from this Lakers squad are growing pains. Growing pains on behalf of a young core that does not have time to do so as expectations will only get higher leading into next summer.

Luke Walton, in my estimation, has the toughest job in the NBA. Coaching the best player in the world who has been to the Finals every year this decade, as well as a young group of talent who does not yet know how to win.

Generally, those circumstances get coaches fired. See David Blatt. Magic Johnson has already expressed his desire to see accelerated improvement from his head coach. The question is how they get there.

There are two minor adjustments the Lakers can make to make their roster more dynamic. These adjustments can be made to avoid a trade and keep this young roster intact moving into the 2019 free agency.

First, stagger Lonzo Ball and LeBron James’ minutes. Lonzo and LeBron should not play extended minutes together.

They are too similar in mindset offensively. When the two are on the floor together Lonzo’s play suffers because he does not have the ball enough. Unless they are able to get out and run, he is relegated to a spot-up shooter. Something that while he has improved, he does not excel at. Lonzo is better served when he can lead the break and find open shooters like Josh Hart and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope on the wing in the second unit.

As gifted of a passer as LeBron is, he is still an isolation ball player. He needs the ball and space to canvas the landscape to find open opportunities. For this relationship to work with them both on the court together, LeBron will need to tweak the way he maneuvers on the floor. He will need to play more off the ball and work more screen and roll action with the primary ball handler to create mismatches at the high post and 3-point areas. Boxes and elbows as Jalen Rose refers to it.

Second, play Brandon Ingram more at point guard in the first unit. With Rajon Rondo out for an extended period of time, the Lakers need a dynamic player, not named LeBron James, to carry a majority of the ball-handling duties.

Brandon Ingram is a player that can do anything on the floor. He can grab the ball off the glass and lead the break. He can be used in pick and roll action with a four or a five and he can be used in isolation at the pinch post and mid-post areas to punish smaller guards defending him.

With Brandon at the point, you force him to be a decision maker, making him more aggressive and a threat to score at all times. Too often he can hide in the offense. The more he touches the ball the more confidence he will gain as a focal point in the offense.

I would also like to see Svi Mykhailiuk play a few more minutes here and there as the Lakers struggle from three but I digress.

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I understand Luke has a tough job, but he also has an opportunity. If he can figure out a way to get this roster to be more cohesive, he could find himself in Coach of the Year discussions. Time will tell, but we are going to find out if this team can fight through some early growing pains.

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