Los Angeles Lakers
Team Outlook:
With the Kobe farewell tour behind the Lakers, they can now focus on the development of their young talent and try and put up more of a fight in the West this year. A team that only managed to win 17 games last season, look for the Lakers to finish at or near the bottom of the league again this season. The Lakers continue to look to build through the draft and if they continue to accumulate top 5 picks they should be able to do just that. This team should play fast and loose this season, but that will cause just as many issues as it will be scoring chances. Luke Walton hopes to lead this team to some success this season, but the ceiling is very low until this young group can mesh and play together.
Projected Lineup:
D’Angelo Russell: Point Guard
Russell made more headlines in the locker room than he did on the court in his rookie season, but the former Buckeye is young and talented enough to make major stride this season. He was the team’s 4th leading scorer and lead the team in assists. Russell did average 2.5 turnovers per game and is a big part of his game that he needs to work on. Russell still needs to prove that he can run this team on the floor, but with no clear-cut replacement he is still going to see the bulk of the minutes and in turn have more opportunity to score. If Russell can mature both on and off the court he may be able to help Laker fans forget about Kobe retiring and get excited for this teams’ future.
Jordan Clarkson: Shooting Guard
Clarkson was the Lakers’ second-leading scorer to the tune of 15.5 points per game last season and the organization was quick to lock him into a long-term deal at 4 years $50 million. The speedy guard is considered a building block for the future of this team and will look to improve his 43.3% shooting from the field and 34.7% from three-point last season. Again there is not much to challenge Clarkson for minutes this season and as long as he remains productive and healthy there will be plenty of opportunity for scoring.
Luol Deng: Small Forward
Deng is projected to be the team’s starter, but his role with the Lakers will be different than anything he was asked to do in Miami. The veteran should receive the bulk of the playing time until Brandon Ingram is deemed ready to go. The 30-year-old will be leaned on to mentor this young and talented group as well as being productive on the court. Look for Deng’s minutes to begin to dwindle as the season wears on and Ingram starts to come into his own. This team is looking to build for the future and Deng is a transition piece to help get them there.
Julius Randle: Power Forward
Randle was overshadowed by the Kobe farewell tour but quietly managed to average a double-double in his first full season. He missed all of the 2014-2015 season with a broken leg in the team’s season opener and looks to build on his first successful season. The power forward shot 42.9% from the field and this is an area he looks to improve on this year. There seems to be no ill effects from the broken leg and Randle has looked good running in practice and should be considered when putting together any lineup.
Timofey Mozgov: Center
The rampant spending in the NBA continued as the Lakers signed Mozgov to a 4 year $64 million deal that most teams were happy to pass up. However, he is a guy that can help this team down low and is much needed to complement their young and speedy guards. Mozgov is not going to jump off the stats sheet and pulls down fewer boards than you would expect from a center, especially last season. He was rushed back from an offseason knee injury and by the time the playoffs had rolled around had fallen out of the Cavs’ lineup. It will be the Mozgov show at center for the Lakers and it will be interesting to see how he rebounds now that he is healthy. His numbers early on will show whether or not he is going to be a key contributor this season.
Key Bench:
Louis Williams
Williams is slated to be the first guard off the bench for the Lakers and looks to build on a successful year last season. He made it to the foul line at a higher clip than any other Laker last season, and only three other Lakers tallied higher assist percentages. Williams averaged 15.3 points per game last year and will look to pick right back up where he left off.
Jose Calderon
Calderon was signed in the offseason from the Knicks on a one-year deal and will have the tough task of trying to get Russell ready to lead this team. The backup point guard will be used to spell Russell when he needs a break and help him develop as a player. There is not much scoring upside to Calderon barring an injury increasing his playing time, but he will still play an important role in the development of the Lakers young core.
Nick Young
Last season is one that Young would like to quickly forget. The entire snapchat, social media debacle aside, he also did next to nothing on the floor. His abysmal 33.9% from the floor resulted in 7.9 points per game and his playing time dwindled as the season went on. With Ingram in the mix this season you could see his numbers drop even further this year unless he manages to turn things around in the early going.
Brandon Ingram
Ingram was taken second overall by the Lakers, and after a slow start to his college season, he quickly showed why he was a top talent going into the draft. There have been some questions about his size and ability to get inside in the NBA, but the forward will have Luol Deng as his mentor and be brought along slowly. Ingram is clearly the answer to the future for the Lakers, and it is only a question of when he will take over that role.
Yi Jianlian
Jianlian is giving the NBA another go after his disastrous first attempt in the league. He went back to his native China and was very productive for the Guangdong Tigers to a tune of 26.7 points per game and also played very well in the Summer Olympics. Jianlian’s deal is only guaranteed for $1.2 of the $8 million he signed for and could be a quick experiment if he has not improved from his last stint stateside.
Key Losses: Kobe Bryant, Roy Hibbert, Robert Sacre
Key Additions: Brandon Ingram, Luol Deng, Luke Walton, Timofey Mozgov