The Los Angeles Lakers preseason is officially in the books as the next game that the team plays will officially count. Los Angeles takes on the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night looking to get off to a much better start in the regular season than the preseason.
The outcomes of the preseason games may not count but there is still a lot you can learn about a team that certainly does matter. And as low as the expectations were for this team, there were quite a few things that we learned about this team in six preseason games.
Naturally, there are some winners from the preseason who look to be in a much better position heading into the regular season and there are some losers, who cannot be happy with how the regular season panned out.
Here are the biggest winners and losers from the Los Angeles Lakers preseason:
Winner: Matt Ryan
Matt Ryan has to be considered the biggest winner from the Lakers preseason. Ryan was signed to a training camp deal and certainly was not favored to make the final roster. He had a chance because of his impressive three-point resume in the G League but he had to go out and earn it over other candidates.
Ryan did just that as he came out and looked like the best three-point shooter on the entire roster. His three-point shot did tail off towards the end so his overall numbers are not great but he showed the poise and ability to be an off-ball shooter for Los Angeles off the bench.
On a team that desperately lacks three-point shooting, that was enough to earn Ryan a roster spot on the NBA club to start the regular season. That has to be considered a massive win.