75-79, this is the sum of the Lakers' wins and losses for two consecutive years after winning the championship in 2019-20, 33-49 losses last season and directly missed the play-offs, compared with 52-19 losses in a single season two years ago, a single-season win rate of 73.2%, the Lakers in the past two seasons have really disappointed many fans.
Although it will still be difficult to make a difference in the competitive West next season, at least this summer, Lakers management finally tried another direction of operation, successfully rejuvenated the roster, and also completed a two-year contract extension with James. Regardless of the quality of these signings, at least it is certain that the Lakers will have a different atmosphere in the new season.
How to solve the problem of overstaffing in the backfield?
Looking at the Lakers' current roster, there is a gap between the ratio of backcourt players and frontcourt players, of which as many as 4 people can squeeze into the rotation of the No. 1 position, which shows that too many people in the backcourt will be a problem that the team needs to face in the new season. Judging by the warm-up performance, the one-size-fits-all Kendrick Nunn has a good chance of entering the starting lineup, but who will be his backcourt partner? This is quite a question worth exploring, and perhaps Westbrook is still the first choice now, but from the warm-up game against the Kings, it can be seen that Darwin Hamm is already ready to use Westbrook as the sixth man off the bench, so leaving aside the latter, the rest of the players such as Patrick Beverley and Austin Reeves are candidates to consider as starting guards.
If there is no surprise, the Lakers are bound to do more operations to balance the ratio of backcourt to frontcourt personnel before the mid-season trade limit, and it remains to be seen whether Westbrook will be the first target of the team's opening knife, but at least for now it seems that he faces the season with a fairly positive and energetic mentality, and can do his best on the court, whether the conclusion of "he is not suitable for the Lakers" can be overturned in the new season is worth watching, if in the end his outside line is still no improvement, and the defense is only at the middle and lower level, At that time, there is also a high probability that it will become the target of high-level manipulation.
Has the defense improved from last season?
The Lakers' defensive efficiency score last season ranked 21st in the league at just 112.8, in large part due to the absence of Anthony Davis, the pillar of the team, which allowed the team to average 51.5 points per game in their own penalty area, outperforming the Pacers and Rockets in the league. In addition, the team's defense group last year was also quite poor, Westbrook's poor first-line defense made him easy to be an opponent's point of play, and the rest such as Avery Bradley, Malik Monk, Wayne Ellington, Kent Bazemore and others could not contribute too much on the defensive end, resulting in the team can only rely on defensive rotation to support the dilemma of lack of single defensive locks, but last season their average age was extremely high, and the lack of vitality also made the team's defense lose a certain degree of enthusiasm, making opponents frequently successful on the perimeter. He averaged 12.6 peripheral heavy shots per game.
Next season's healthy Lakers may not be able to return to the defensive level of the original championship period, but it can be expected that the team will definitely play better defensive performance than last season with a younger roster and stable main players. Patrick Beverley, Juan Toscano-Andersson, Troy Brown Jr. and others who joined the team in the off-season will inject more energy and hard work into the team, while sophomore Austin Reeves is also expected to improve on the defensive end under a series of weight training in the summer, plus James and Anthony Davis, who are already top defensively, the Lakers' defensive energy in the new season is worth watching.
When it comes to the defensive end, I have to mention the shortcomings of the Lakers roster - there are too few forward players, and compared to the abundant combat power of the guard group, the rotation of the Lakers' frontcourt is quite lacking. With the news that Thomas Bryant at the No. 5 position will be absent for about three weeks due to an injury to his left thumb, it can be expected that Anthony Davis will take on more of the responsibility of the No. 5 position in the opening season, but at the same time it will greatly increase his chances of injury, and Anthony Davis is gone, leaving only Damian Jones as a full-time center forward on the bench end, so it may be a reasonable prediction that Darwin Hamm will use James, Winyne Gabriel, Juan Toscano-Andersson and others to carry the box and small ball five. However, this will also cause the Lakers to be too small on the court, and when these forwards who can carry the fourth position run to support the box, there will be more guards to play to the third position, which means that the three-guard formation is very likely to appear a few weeks before the start of the season.
Outside firepower needs to be strengthened?
Looking at the current roster, the real off-ball shooter is probably only Matt Ryan, a 25-year-old young player, and Patrick Beverley and Kendrick Nunn may be the most reliable peripheral ambushers in the team, but they are bound to shoulder more ball-carrying work, not exactly like the past Kentavios Cadwell-Pope, Danny Green and other types of good off-ball shooters, so the lack of outside expertise in the roster will be one of the huge problems the Lakers will face in the new season.
Off-season Lonnie Walker, Troy Brown Jr., Juan Toscano-Andersson, Dennis Schroder and others have not reached 36% career three-point shooting percentage, and it may be difficult for them to carry the team's outside arrow, so the only way for the team to make a difference on the perimeter is to use the destructive power and attraction of the double star to create comfortable shooting gaps for outside teammates.
It's no secret that James' most needed type of teammate is 3D players, but with Malik Monk, Cameron Anthony and others who did well in projection last season unable to stay on the team and the team unable to find top outside shooters outside the season, it is to be expected that the team's three-point line will continue to be sluggish next season. However, it is still interesting to see if Kendrick Nunn, Patrick Beverley and even James and Anthony Davis can contribute on the shooting end, especially Anthony Davis, who was proud of his ability to play inside and out, and whether he can regain the precision of the past outside is one of his goals on the offensive end in the new season.
Key player: Anthony Davis
Remember ESPN's list of Top 100 players ahead of the 2020-21 season? In this list, Lakers double stars James and Anthony Davis are in the first and second positions, respectively! In the original 19-20 season, the healthy Anthony Davis averaged 26.1 points, 9.3 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.5 steals and 2.3 blocks per game, plus a career-best average of 1.2 three-pointers and 7.2 free throws per game, such a brilliant result not only led the Lakers to win the Bubble Park championship, Anthony Davis was also selected as the best team of the year and the first defensive team of the year.
This is the healthy Anthony Davis, who originally evaluated even more than the "modern mythical beast" of the alphabet brother.
Everyone knows the story later, Anthony Davis suffered various injuries in the two seasons after the Lakers won the championship, only played a total of 76 games in two seasons, and the original excellent shooting in the long world also dropped sharply, and last season's three-point shooting rate was only 18.6%, obviously, "health" is a major weakness of Anthony Davis.
As new coach Darwin Hamm said, as long as Anthony Davis can play healthy, he is in his 29-year-old prime and is definitely capable of challenging the top five in the league, and his offensive ability to match suffocating defensive ability inside and outside makes him the most capable power forward in recent years to rival the two-time Most Valuable Player of the Year. Anthony Davis' importance to the Lakers next season is self-evident, his combination with James on the offensive end was the strongest duo in the league, and he can also play the center of the team on the defensive end, building a terrible box defense, if he can maintain health this season and have a 70% shooting rate, perhaps the Lakers have the capital to do something in the playoffs.