The LA Losers?

As the NBA season has started so has all the drama and the stories

being built during the season with The LA Lakers being in the centre of

attention due to their struggles after their first 6 games only winning one

against the Denver Nuggets. While they have had some important

changes to their championship winning squad from the 2020 NBA finals

like bringing in rookie head coach Darvin Ham and losing key rotational

players like Alex Caruso they are still underperforming majorly

considering they have one of the best players of all time in Lebron

James and superstars Anthony Davis and Russel Westbrook.

Why is this happening?

There are a number of things that could be the reason for their poor

performance. Firstly, their superstar trio while on paper seems

unstoppable with 3 former first team All-NBA players of which 2 are

former MVPs (Lebron and Westbrook) they do not gel together well on

the court. While Lebron is one of the most talented players of all time he

cannot single-handedly carry the team and rely on AD and Russ to

ensure they win when he is not playing. This is because Lebron is a

team player and a very good playmaker. He needs shooters on the team

for him to be at his best and win as he needs teammates who will space

out the floor and allow him to drive to the basket where he is his

strongest. The Lakers team lacks shooting, they currently have the 2

nd

worst FG% (Field Goal) in the league above the Houston Rockets and

they also average the 2

nd

least amount of points in the league. Clearly,

scoring the basketball is not the Lakers specialty.

Another issue maybe the dynamic of the team. Russel Westbrook has

not been anywhere close to his best since he joined the Lakers and has

had horrible offensive performances. Anthony Davis always has injury

doubts to the point where he seems to get injured 2-3 times a game and

the rest of the Lakers team is very weak and shallow when compared to

other contending teams’ squad depth. They also have a rookie coach

who may lack experience on how to set up a team like this to win.

To combat this the Lakers are looking to trade for Pacers centre Myles

Turner who is an elite shooter for his size and leads the league in blocks.