Coming into the 2021-22 campaign, the L.A. Lakers had a lot of optimism about the season, especially after trading for former MVP, Russell Westbrook.
But the Lakers have had a tough go of it so far, suffering injuries and growing pains to start this season.
Following their most recent loss, which has them at 8-8, Anthony Davis shared his thoughts on the state of his squad.
AD says “we put a team together and we haven’t seen it yet" when asked about the Lakers’ 8-8 start. Also pointed out that the Bucks have been dealing with a lot of injuries too so it’s not an excuse.
— Lakers Nation (@LakersNation) November 18, 2021
Say what you want about the Lakers but without LeBron James, they’re just not the same team.
Of course, there are also questions about Russell Westbrook and his fit with the roster.
The numbers are damning.
Russell Westbrook is defending 5.2 three-point shots per game and allowing his assignment to shoot 38.2% from deep, 4.9% better than their normal average, and tenth-worst in the league among guards (minimum five 3-point shots defended to remove some of the noise).
To make matters worse, out of the 5.2 shots from deep Westbrook has been responsible for guarding this year on the Lakers, he’s only contesting 2.1 of those attempts. The math is simple; he’s giving up 3.1 wide-open shots from beyond the arc per game.
The Lakers are 12th in the league in defense, an unforgivable ranking with a hulking do-it-all player like Anthony Davis in the fold. Russell Westbrook sits at 257th in the association in defensive rating, which is boosted considerably by his rebounding percentages. His on-ball defense has vacillated from mediocre to porous this season, but the way he’s ambling out to open shooters from three-point range has hurt more.
It’s impossible to judge the Lakers with such a big piece of their roster missing. LeBron James will make a huge difference on both ends of the floor.
Still, there are deeper issues with the Lakers that LeBron alone might not fix right away.
There is a lot of work to be done for the 17x Champs and they are more than capable of figuring it all out.
