The Los Angeles Lakers have a roster that is nearly completely new for the 2021-22 season. The only returning players from last season are LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Talen Horton-Tucker, with bigs names such as Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony (among many others) joining the purple and gold.
The expectation is that the Lakers will win the Western Conference and have a good shot of winning the NBA Championship. Those expectations are certainly justified, however, now that we have seen the team in action we can start to pick apart its flaws.
Preseason games don’t matter and they should not be overreacted to. That being said, they can be revealing and thus far, Russell Westbrook has revealed the Lakers’ fatal flaw heading into the season: turnovers.
Westbrook has 14 turnovers in his two games with the Lakers and has not been playing all that great. Westbrook is not worried about the turnovers, and the team does not seem to be worried about being winless in the preseason. But if the team continues to turn the ball over at the same rate that they have in the preseason then it is going to be a problem.
It is more than just the preseason turnovers, though. The Los Angeles Lakers have several guys who have struggled with ball security in recent years.
The concerning numbers about the Los Angeles Lakers, Russell Westbrook and turnovers.
Personally, I am a bit irked by the fact that Westbrook outright does not seem to care about the turnovers. I do not want him overreacting to these games but he doesn’t really have the track record to assume that he is simply going to turn it around. This is a brand-new fit unlike anything else in his career and he is already one of the league’s most prolific turnover artists.
Westbrook does not deserve the benefit of the doubt. He led the league in turnovers last season. Sure, his usage rate was high, but this was more than just the result of Westbrook having the ball a lot. He simply turned the basketball over at a high rate. Westbrook’s turnover rate was 18% — the 14th highest in the league among players with 1,000 minutes played.
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One of the team’s main ball-handlers having that high of a turnover rate is not a great thing for the Lakers… especially when Westbrook is not the only player with a high turnover rate on the team.
The numbers are concerning.
Draymond Green had the worst turnover rate in the league last season, coming in at 31%. Behind him with the second-highest turnover rate was none other than DeAndre Jordan, who owned a 22.7% turnover rate. Behind Jordan is another Laker, Dwight Howard, who had a 22.1% turnover rate.
Sure, the centers might not be taking the ball up the court but they are susceptible of being stripped, as evident by the turnover rate. They are not alone.
Kent Bazemore checks in with a 16.1% turnover rate, the 31st-highest in the league. Right behind him is Talen Horton-Tucker, who is having thumb surgery, and also owned a 16.1% turnover rate. LeBron James is the next Laker to make the list, coming in 42nd with a 15.1% turnover rate.
The Lakers have six players who have a turnover rate above 15% and three of those players are going to be handling the basketball a lot (James, Westbrook, THT) while both of the team’s centers struggle with ball security problems.
That seems like an issue for three players in LeBron, Westbrook and even THT that love to pass to centers near the rim. And just for those counting at home, these six players are all in the 16th percentile in turnover percentage. About half of the Lakers’ rotation is worse than 84% of the league in protecting the basketball.
The Los Angeles Lakers ranked 22nd in the league in turnovers two seasons ago and 28th last season. This could be the worst ranking of the trio, and with a worse defense, it could get ugly if they do not figure it out.