Jeremy Lin Tries to Explain Lakers’ Futility
By Evan Massey
Jeremy Lin couldn’t find the words to express the Los Angeles Lakers’ embarrassing start to the season.
The Los Angeles Lakers lost once again on Sunday to the Golden State Warriors, and are now sitting at 1-9 with the NBA’s second worst record only to the Philadelphia 76ers. Jeremy Lin was acquired this past offseason to provide more scoring and be a key piece to the rotation, but the team as a whole simply hasn’t played well together and a lot of the blame has fallen on Kobe Bryant for being too much of a ball hog.
It’s not like these struggles weren’t expected prior to the season, but they have been even worse than many expected them to be. The team hasn’t looked into games, and they haven’t competed all that terribly much either. Lin was asked about the struggles and simply couldn’t find any words to describe why the team is playing as poorly as they have been.
Lin hasn’t come close to living up to his potential in L.A. and is on track to be one of the biggest busts of the offseason. The Lakers thought that they would be getting a playmaking point guard that could help shoulder the scoring load, but he has been unable to do either of those things this year. Take a look at his stat line through the Lakers’ first ten games this season:
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/17/2014.
Bryant has been the Lakers’ top scorer by far at 27.3 points per game, but it has taken him 24.4 shots per game to hit that number so far. Those numbers simply aren’t going to cut it from one of the NBA’s best players over the last 10 years. Lin hasn’t been able to provide any type of scoring support, and neither have the rest of the Lakers’ roster.
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Needless to say, this has been one of the most embarrassing starts to the season that the Lakers have put on the floor. They weren’t expected to make the playoffs, but they also weren’t expected to look like a poor excuse for a high school basketball team either. It doesn’t look like things are going to get better anytime soon, and the majority of the Lakers’ team sounds like Lin with no idea what to say after the start that they’ve had.
Hopefully they can turn things around and get a few wins over the next couple of weeks for their fan base, but the days of competing for the NBA Finals each and every year are gone. This is going to be a year where they come away with a very good draft pick, and quite a few of the current players on the roster will not be back next season. Lin has to pick up his play, or he might himself somewhere else next season or at the very least see the Lakers doing their best to trade him away.