It's almost time for the start of the new NBA season and with it, a new era for the Los Angeles Lakers. For the first time in 20 years, the Lakers will field a team that does not include Kobe Bryant.Bryant had achieved legendary status for the franchise due to his longevity, his almost unreal scoring ability, his five championship seasons and generally being an insane person that won a lot during his time here.
Because of those factors, this is more than just a new season for Los Angeles. It's a whole new beginning with a new system and fresh, young faces anchoring the team. It's certainly much more exciting than the Kobe Bryant Retirement Tour from last season, as the Lakers finally have a future to look forward to. Gone is Byron Scott and his refusal to use three pointers to his advantage. Gone is Bryant and his absurd usage percentage from last season. In their place, we have Luke Walton implementing a system fit for a modern NBA team, with the proper players to run said system.
With that said, this team is going to have a lot of growing pains. For starters, this team is astonishingly unproven. Luke Walton got rave reviews from nearly everyone in Golden State and he had an extremely impressive coaching record last season, filling in for Steve Kerr, who had taken some time off to heal from a nagging back injury. Walton led the Warriors to a 39-4 record before Kerr returned. That record is mighty impressive, especially for someone as inexperienced at coaching as Walton is, but we do have to question how much of that was Walton and how much of that was the Warriors being absurd last year.
Despite the fact that the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead in the Finals, they did still break the regular season record for wins in a season, ending with a 73-9 record. You have to figure there are going to be growing pains for him. Despite how much I like the core of D'Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson and Julius Randle, they aren't anywhere near as good as Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
Additionally, the talent on this team is immense, but very raw. D'Angelo Russell and rookie Brandon Ingram ooze potential and are likely going to be the cornerstones of the franchise going forward, but they're still very young; neither is old enough to buy a beer yet. Jordan Clarkson is a bit more mature at 24 years old, but he also has some question marks surrounding him. For starters, his defense has not exactly been up to standard the past couple seasons. There are questions as to how much farther he can develop, and if he was merely putting up good numbers on a sub-par team. Julius Randle showed flashes of potential last year, namely the fact that he's already rebounding at an elite rate, but was extremely rough around the edges with his finishing and decision making. Rookie Ivica Zubac looks like an absolute steal in the 2nd round of this year's draft and could potentially anchor the Lakers at center in the future, but he's going to be eased in because of how young and unproven he is.
The building blocks are there, it's just a matter of developing our young core properly. Thankfully, Walton already has some ideas on how to properly utilize each players strengths. Noticing a large drop off in quality of play between the starters and the bench, Walton is going to use Clarkson as the leader of the bench unit and the 6th man. This will be similar to Lamar Odom or Manu Ginobili and their respective roles as 6th men. It will help get both Russell and Clarkson more time with the ball, while significantly improving the bench unit.
Walton has also implemented a system built on screens, off-ball movement and crisp passing that is a much welcome change to the isolation heavy offense that Scott ran last year. As great as Kobe was over his 20 year career, he was a major reason the Lakers were so bad last season, as he was a complete black hole on both sides of the ball and the Lakers were obviously catering to him.
How good will this team be? Probably not very good. For the first time in a long time, the season won't be measured on wins and losses, but rather on how the Lakers win or lose. LA is okay with having another bad season, as long as the young core is taking strides to improve. A 30-52 record is fine, if Russell and co look good while doing so. It's going to be a bumpy road coming up, but for the first time in years, the team finally has something to look forward to.
