Los Angeles Lakers: Despite Slow Start, Progress Being Made

The Los Angeles Lakers said all the right things this offseason, claiming to be a team building toward a playoff run. Most saw through it, and even though the roster they have built around Kobe Bryant is inferior to most Western Conference opponents, many expected this team to be more competitive than last year’s edition. Through two games it was not the case.

After drubbings at the hands of the Houston Rockets and Phoenix Suns, the Los Angeles Lakers went into a nationally televised game against the Los Angeles Clippers as a beaten, perhaps even broken team, considering how much they had endured in such a short time in terms of criticism, drama and injury. Many had declared this season a lost one, and if they hadn’t already it was on the tip of their tongue.

The Los Angeles Clippers came out to a fast start, and it looked like more of the same from Kobe Bryant and his crew of castoffs. The something happened: ball movement.

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The offense had looked indecisive for much of the first few games of the season, with Jeremy Lin being tentative in attacking the basket, and the entire team failing to make aggressive moves, ultimately tossing the ball to Kobe Bryant deep in the clock, looking for him to bail them out. Something changed, and players were making their presence felt.

The Lakers would go on to lose that game, 118-111, but the offense felt more alive than it had this year. Jeremy Lin dished out nine assists in the game to go with 17 points, and looked every bit of the second option that the Los Angeles Lakers need him to be. Jordan Hill showed off his shooting touch, tossing in 23 points of his own on 10-15 shooting. This performance felt like a building block despite the loss, the type of moral victory that the purple and gold isn’t used to claiming.

What this did show, however, is that this is a capable offensive team. On the second night of their back-to-back set, the Lakers put up 104 points in a 23-point loss to the Golden State Warriors. The defense is about as bad as anyone predicted it would be given the state of the roster, but this squad is starting to get things figured out on the offensive end of the court, and that’s a huge part of an equation that looked too complex for anyone to solve as little as a week ago.

There are still plenty of issues. The Los Angeles Lakers are 0-4 with a daunting schedule ahead, so the playoffs should not even be a consideration at this point. The defense is the worst in the league, both from a viewing standpoint and statistically. Kobe Bryant needs to be more involved with making plays on offense, outside of creating his own, and the bench still is missing a host of key contributors including Nick Young and Ryan Kelly. Life isn’t good in Lakerland, certainly far from the purple and gold standard.

But there are positives, and they can’t be overlooked in what started off as a nightmare season. Kobe Bryant has stayed patient, Jeremy Lin is beginning to assert himself, and Ed Davis continues to be a bright spot on this depleted roster. The defense is God awful, but the offense has shown signs, turning Laker games into a more pleasurable viewing experience, an upgrade from the stomach-turning experiences offered in the first few contests.

There is progress being made in the Los Angeles Lakers organization, and while it’s not going to add another banner in the rafters any time soon, it’s a step to rebuilding what has been lost. A step in the right direction, and one that every franchise must take.

Next: Which teams should be panicking after their first games of the new season?

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