Los Angeles Lakers: 3 under-the-radar reasons for their early success

3. Happiness

Perhaps you think the idea of team happiness in the NBA is a basketball version of the chicken or the egg question? Are the Lakers happy right now because they are winning? Or are they winning because they feel happy?

Team joy is not an unanswerable philosophical question. Everyone performs better when they are in a jovial work environment. The Lakers are no exception. One of the keys to the Lakers’ hot start this year is that every player on the Purple and Gold is content.

Last season the Lakers slumped because of injuries, poor roster construction, and awful coaching, but another critical factor was that there wasn’t the same joy flowing through the team that we see this year.

During the 2018-2019 season, with Luke Walton at the helm and the young core still calling Hollywood home, it felt like half the players on the squad had a different agenda. Brandon Ingram wanted to prove that he had All-Star talent. Lonzo Ball wished to show that his style of play could lead to wins in the NBA. JaVale McGee, Lance Stephenson, Rajon Rondo, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope were on one-year “prove it” contracts, so each player was trying to confirm that he deserved a long-term deal.

Winning games should have been the only goal for the Purple and Gold last season, but instead, almost everyone on the squad was more interested in padding their stats. When you fill a roster with a group of individuals who only play for themselves instead of for the team, then failure and unhappiness are bound to follow.

Heading into the 2019-2020 season, LeBron James decided to remedy last year’s ego-driven fiasco by holding an independent minicamp before the preseason began. While most of the NBA was still on vacation, LeBron James and many of his new teammates bonded and built a winning comradery

Now the Lakers have one goal; winning a championship. Everybody’s sacrificing for the team. Dwight Howard and Kyle Kuzma are scoring fewer points than they ever have in their respective careers, but they’re playing fantastic defense and helping LA win.

KCP and Alex Caruso are going 100% on the less glamorous side of the ball and have stopped caring about whether they score or not. Everybody’s chipping in and playing their part to win basketball games. Thus the Lakers have the best record in the league.

The Brooklyn Nets have been the inverse of the Lakers. The men who suit up for Brooklyn started the year having to deal with Kyrie Irving’s famous mood swings during the preseason. Irving’s a sorcerer with the ball in his hands, but the way he stops talking to his teammates for weeks on end takes the joy out of playing basketball with him.

So, Kyrie’s talented Nets squad began the 2019-2020 season going 4-7, with a worse net rating when Kyrie was on the floor. After a minor shoulder injury sidelined Irving, Brooklyn went on a tear and is now 14-12 on the season.

Happiness is one of the most underrated keys to winning in the NBA. Joy leads to excellent team chemistry, which in turn leads to victories.