A year in review: How 2023 shook out for the Los Angeles Lakers

At the start of the calendar year, the 2022-2023 Los Angeles Lakers held a 15-21 record after yet another lousy start to the season. It was clear when the calendar year flipped that changes were imminent, and a lot has truly transpired over the course of the full 2023 calendar year.

First, it was the unexpected trade with the Washington Wizards that brought Rui Hachimura to Los Angeles in January. Trading Kendrick Nunn was essentially an addition by subtraction, and the team ended up replacing the 3 second-round picks it gave up in an eventual trade with Denver involving Thomas Bryant. Most importantly, Hachimura has been a solid contributor for the team since his arrival with that especially being the case in the 2023 postseason run (which we will get to in just a bit).

Next came arguably the most impressive move of the Rob Pelinka era in February when Russell Westbrook was traded to Utah in a multi-team deal that netted the Lakers D'Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Malik Beasley. With all due respect to Russ, this was an even greater case of addition by subtraction. And similar to the Hachimura trade, this was yet another trade in which the Lakers got the better end of the deal. Only, this one got them three contributors as opposed to one with two of those guys remaining with the core of the 2023-2024 team.

At the start of the 2023 year, here is what the Lakers roster looked like just to refresh your memory:

STARTERS

• PG: Dennis Schroder
• SG: Patrick Beverley
• SF: Lonnie Walker IV
• PF: LeBron James
• C: Anthony Davis

BENCH

• PG: Russell Westbrook
• SG: Austin Reaves
• SF: Troy Brown Jr.
• PF: Wenyen Gabriel
• C: Thomas Bryant
• G: Kendrick Nunn
• SG: Max Christie
• SF: Juan Toscano-Anderson
• C: Damian Jones

After the trade deadline, here is what the renovated roster looked like:

STARTERS

• PG: D'Angelo Russell
• SG: Austin Reaves
• SF: LeBron James
• PF: Jarred Vanderbilt
• C: Anthony Davis

BENCH

• PG: Dennis Schroder
• SG: Malik Beasley
• SF: Lonnie Walker IV
• PF: Rui Hachimura
• C: Mo Bamba
• G: Davon Reed
• SG: Max Christie
• SF: Troy Brown Jr.
• PF: Wenyen Gabriel

The new-look Lakers flourished following the roster reconstruction. They found synergy on both ends of the floor and completely flipped the script from the frustrating front end of the schedule. After the deadline, Los Angeles had the NBA's third-best record at 18-9.

D'Angelo Russell, Rui Hachimura, and Malik Beasley turned out to be crucial weapons on the offensive end. Jarred Vanderbilt blossomed into one of the game's most lethal lockdown defenders right before our eyes, and was a huge reason behind the team posting the league's second-best defensive rating (110.8) during their second-half resurgence.

The squad sustained its consistent chemistry into the postseason. The run started with a wire-to-wire win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Play-In tournament, punctuated by a last-second splash from Dennis the Menace. The purple and gold rallied together after that hard-fought win to dominate the 2nd-seeded Memphis Grizzlies in the first round.

LeBron and AD were their usual dominant selves but were overshadowed by the emergence of Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura during that series. Reaves, in particular, developed a reputation as being "that guy" during his breakout against the Grizzlies. Next, it was the always-dangerous Steph Curry and his Golden State Warriors who were outmatched by LeBron, AD, and the rest of the crew.

Unfortunately, the series with the Dubs was the extent of the highs when it came to last season's postseason run. The Western Conference Finals with the Denver Nuggets was inarguably the low point of the run, as the Lakers were thoroughly educated to the tune of a sweep.

It was a tough way to go down, but nobody in their right mind was expecting this team to advance to that point in the playoffs. The organization held it's heads high heading into the offseason, and the basketball world pondered what the next steps were heading into the 2023 offseason.

An honorable Lakers offseason

The first domino of the offseason came in the form of two NBA draft selections. With the 17th pick in the first round, they chose promising 20-year-old point guard Jalen Hood-Schifino from Indiana University. In the second round, they snagged versatile swingman Maxwell Lewis out of Pepperdine University. The two both offer loads of potential in the future, but with the organization looking to contend it was primarily assumed that they would not hold significant roles within the 2023-2024 rotation.

Going into free agency, there were a lot of question marks regarding the approach that the front office would take in assembling the new team. Would they retain some of their key guys? Would they improve their shooting? Would they make any major splashes?

In the early stages of free agency, Rob Pelinka was critically acclaimed for his wizardry in recreating the roster once again. The main core from last season's team was retained, while the new additions seemed to be seamless fits around those key pieces.

That was all before the team inked uber-talented big man Christian Wood (16.6 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in 2022-2023 with Dallas) to a veteran minimum contract to fill it's 14th and final roster spot. All things considered, this appeared to be a well-balanced roster on paper with everything needed to seriously contend for a championship in the modern NBA (superstars, shooters, defenders, secondary playmakers, etc).

At the conclusion of the offseason and training camp, here is what the revamped roster looked like:

STARTERS

• PG: D'Angelo Russell
• SG: Austin Reaves
• SF: Taurean Prince
• PF: LeBron James
• C: Anthony Davis

BENCH

• PG: Gabe Vincent
• SG: Cam Reddish
• SF: Rui Hachimura
• PF: Jarred Vanderbilt
• C: Christian Wood
• PG: Jalen Hood-Schifino
• SG: Max Christie
• Sf: Maxwell Lewis
• C: Jaxson Hayes

A mediocre start to the Lakers' 2023-24 season

Despite copious amounts of optimism pertaining to what this Lakers team could do in the 2023-2024 season, the output has produced mixed results. On the positive side of the spectrum, the now 39-year-old LeBron continued his everlasting reign of supremacy.

The King has been incredible once again, and his partner in crime AD has been equally (if not more) dominant. Heading into 2024, Davis is among the leading candidates for the highly coveted Defensive Player of the Year award. If he were to receive the recognition, it would (somehow) be the first of his career.

Austin Reaves rebounded nicely from a sluggish start to close the calendar year on a wave of momentum. With nightly averages in December of 17.3 points, 5 assists, and 4.1 rebounds on shooting splits of 49.7/39.7/91.5 he ended the season looking "that guy" we saw in the 2023 Grizzlies series. Cam Reddish also shook off a rough start to the season to secure a role in this year's rotation (and possibly the rotation in future seasons).

On another positive note, the Lakers were able to bring home the NBA's inaugural In-Season Tournament championship trophy. There was a lot of skepticism surrounding the IST leading up to this season, but it actually turned out to be quite a successful venture in the league's latest innovation tactic.

Unfortunately, that is about the extent of the positive notes for the 2023 section of the 2023-2024 season for the Lakers. Injuries have once again plagued this team. Jarred Vanderbilt appeared in the team's first preseason game before a heel injury kept him out until the team's 21st regular season game of the year. Gabe Vincent made it through the team's first 4 regular season games before missing the next 24, and is now back on the injured reserved list following a minor knee procedure that will keep him out at least two months. Other guys like Hachimura and Reddish have missed a bit of time here and there, and overall it has been difficult for the team to build chemistry without having their full rotation available.

Inconsistency was another major area of concern, especially in terms of the players. But while early on in the season a lot of the blame could rationally be placed on the players, as time transpired it has begun to appear as if the man in charge may deserve the lion's share of the criticism.

The blame can certainly be balanced out evenly between all parties, but at the climax of the 2023 calendar year, it was clear that there are going to need to be some changes made in order to get things back on the correct track. Whether that be similar to last season's total turnover remains to be seen, but hopefully, the 2024 version of the 2023-2024 Lakers is better than its predecessor.