Los Angeles Lakers: Are they losing because of chemistry or a bad roster?

Let’s examine the Los Angeles Lakers roster to determine whether or not it’s good or bad.

The Los Angeles Lakers have gone 3-7 since the trade deadline. During the past 10 games the Lakers have lost to some teams who are clearly trying to tank (Pelicans, Suns, Grizzlies).

Almost everyone who watches the Lakers has claimed that the Purple and Gold have been losing because of chemistry and trust issues. There’s certainly some validity to that claim, but I haven’t heard anybody blame LA’s problems on a lack of talent.

Here’s the Lakers current, post trade deadline rotation (minus Lonzo Ball, who’s been out with an ankle injury):

• JaVale McGee: Over the past five season he’s played for 5 different teams. McGee averaged ten minutes per games during his previous four seasons before joining the Lakers. During those four seasons he started 29 games and averaged 5 points and 1 block per game.
• KCP: He’s a career 34% 3-point shooter (league average is 35%) and he has a career 41% overall field goal %. He’s got a career -0.2 Defensive Box Plus/Minus and career 109 Defensive Rating (this year LeBron James has been awful on defense, but he still has a 107 DEFRTG, which is two points better than KCP).
• Rajon Rondo: He’s played for six different teams over the past five seasons. He was kicked off of two of those teams (Dallas for the season, Chicago for two months). He’s a career 31% 3-point shooter and he hasn’t played defense in five years.
• Lance Stephenson: Over the past five seasons he’s played for seven different teams. He’s a career 31% 3-point shooter and he’s best known for blowing in LeBron’s ear during a playoff game.
• Reggie Bullock: The Pistons traded him for basically nothing and they’re trying to win. Since Detroit dealt Bullock they’ve gone 7-2 and they are in 7th place in the East. Since the Lakers acquired Bullock they’ve gone 3-7. Bullock’s been in the league for six seasons and he’s already played for 4 different teams. His career DEFRTG is 110, which is even worse than KCP.
• Tyson Chandler: I love Chandler, but he’s 36-years-old and since the trade deadline he’s averaging 8 minutes per game.
• Mike Muscala: He’s 2- years-old and he’s been on four different teams. He’s known for his 3-point shooting, but he’s just a career 36% 3-point shooter. Since he’s joined the Lakers he’s been shooting 28% from distance.
• Josh Hart: He’s a great young player who plays above average perimeter defense. He’s shooting 33% from beyond the arc this season.
• Kyle Kuzma: He’s a great young player who can score from mid-range and close to the basket, but he’s not a good 3-point shooter.
• Brandon Ingram: As of late he’s showing that he can become a superstar in the league, capable of playing lockdown defense. He’s a career 33% 3-point shooter.
• LeBron James: He’s a top-5 player of all time, and despite the criticism that’s been thrown at him lately, he’s still a superstar.

The Lakers current rotation consists of seven players- McGee, Rondo, KCP, Stephenson, Bullock, Chandler, and Muscala- who aren’t good basketball players at this point in their careers.

The other four players in the Lakers rotation- Hart, Kuzma, Ingram, and LeBron- are all good to great players, but none of them are good 3-point shooters.

Should anyone expect this current Lakers roster to actually win games? During the Clippers game the Lakers were playing hard and as a team, but they still lost. Why? The Clippers are a better team than the Lakers and they have a better overall roster.

Here are the seven key attributes that teams strive for in today’s NBA (for a team to be considered elite they must have at least six of these characteristics).

• 1 superstar
• 2 All-Stars
• Above average 3-point shooting
• Good perimeter defense
• Good interior defense
• Good coaching
• Good team chemistry

If we look at the Lakers current roster how many of these qualities does the team have?

The Lakers have one superstar and……..

The Lakers only have one All-Star, they’re one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the NBA, their perimeter defense makes me want to cry, the Purple and Gold’s interior D is non-existent, Luke’s definitely not a top-15 coach in the NBA, and the players on the Lakers can’t stand each other.

What about the Cavaliers last year?

• They had a superstar in LeBron
• They had two All-Stars in LeBron and Kevin Love
• They shot 37% from distance last year, well above league average
• They had very bad perimeter defense
• The Cavs interior defense was average with Tristan Thompson manning the middle
• Tyronn Lue was a good coach
• From all appearances after the Cavs dealt half the team at the trade deadline they had good team chemistry.

There’s been a lot of noise this year about how bad the Cavs roster was last season and how LeBron had to drag them into the finals. That’s actually not true, because the Cavs had five out of the 7 attributes a team needs to be successful in the NBA.

It time to stop blaming the Lakers problems on chemistry or trust issues. While it’s obvious the players on the Lakers were affected by all of the trade deadline noise, that’s not the biggest issue that’s plaguing this team.

The biggest problem is that the Lakers don’t have the traits a team needs to actually win in the NBA, which is Magic and Pelinka’s fault.

Many people like to point to the Lakers 20-14 record before LeBron got injured to try to show that the team was constructed well, but that record was fools gold. The Lakers got to 20 wins by playing a home heavy schedule against some of the weakest teams in the league.

The fact is, “Maginka” filled the Lakers with bad players on one-year deals who don’t like to play defense and who can’t shoot the ball from deep.

Lonzo’s current injury and LeBron’s earlier groin issue have certainly hurt the Lakers, but this is a flawed team that never had a chance at becoming an elite squad.