Los Angeles Lakers: Positive Signs After First Summer League Game

The 2015 Las Vegas Summer League kicked off on Friday evening, with the Los Angeles Lakers battling the Minnesota Timberwolves in a jam-packed arena.  It may have been the largest crowd for a July NBA event, and the reason couldn’t have been more obvious:  The No. 1 overall draft pick, Karl Towns, was placed against the No. 2 pick in D’Angelo Russell.

In what many people envisioned a matchup between the top two big-men of the draft (Towns and Jahlil Okafor), the Lakers shook things up when they selected the most talented ball-handler and passer in the draft instead.

Although the Lakers fell 81-68, it set the bar pretty high for the Vegas Summer League in terms of competitiveness and excitement.  Highlight reels were made, aggressive defense was played by both frontcourts, and the crowd got a terrific mixture of rookie and sophomore talent.

For Los Angeles, the loss didn’t mean anything.  It was the flashes of brilliance from their young core that mattered the most.  Perhaps it’s because three of their Summer League stars will also be relied on for huge minutes in the 2015-16 regular season.

In the last two seasons, the Lakers have garnered a miserable record of 48-116 (.293).  Due to their struggles, they’ve been able to land sensational talents in the last two drafts.  While one of them did come (by luck) in the second round, Mitch Kupchak seems to have done a perfect job of adding young studs for the future.

Those three names would be D’Angelo Russell, Julius Randle, and Jordan Clarkson.

Clarkson is the one that stands out, as he still hasn’t gained the attention that Russell and Randle received in the aftermath of their drafts.  After all, both of them were lottery selections by the Lakers, where Clarkson was drafted 32 spots outside of the lottery.

In the 40 minutes of Friday’s loss vs. Minnesota, all three played long enough to warrant some positive reaction.  With Lakers Head Coach, Byron Scott, in attendance while Mark Madsen coaches the summer squad, he had to be impressed with what he saw from his backcourt duo.  Plus, seeing Randle utilize his leaner, more agile body (against actual competition) had to be a great sign for Scott.

Individually, there were definitely some key takeaways:

D’Angelo Russell

The era has officially begun with the Lakers having a premier point guard.  As we discussed on the latest podcast with the Lakers Outsiders, it’s pretty rare that Los Angeles finds itself this blessed.

Derek Fisher didn’t have legendary point guard skills.  Steve Nash was way over the hill, and could never recover from his broken leg after November 2012.  It was clear that Ramon Sessions would always be stuck in the “average” class, or group of point guards that would never enter the upper tiers.

With Russell on board, the times have changed.

was, on the court, for the Lakers.

After watching his early performances throughout practice and his 27 minutes in Friday’s game, Russell’s gifts as a passing guard have actually been understated.  This kid enters the league as a pure passer, blessed with a combo-guard’s body.  He’s not 6-foot like Chris Paul, and he’s not 6’3″ with a smaller upper-body frame like Stephen Curry.

Instead, he’s 6’5″, with way more strength from his arms and torso than he’s given credit for.

Russell displayed his passing beauty in Friday’s loss, with multiple instances of fastbreak finesse.  After making the Wolves’ defense collapse by putting his head down and attacking strong, Russell delivered a few sleek no-look passes to corner shooters.  What really shined, however, were the gorgeous lobs at the rim and full-court dimes that never seemed to be off-target.

It’s already evident — after just a couple practices and one game — that Russell and Clarkson have this unique, comfortable chemistry together in the backcourt.  Neither of them are heroic or distinguished shooters like Curry or Damian Lillard, but they both just understand how to play with a combination of up-tempo intensity and cautiousness.

It’s a rare thing in the NBA.  Sometimes, you’ll get a guard that just plays recklessly and always wants to push the tempo, but commits far too many turnovers.  Other times, you’ll find one that rarely has the guts or skills to do anything outside of the box, thus committing very few turnovers.

Russell is the point guard the Lakers have always needed during this “rebuilding stage.”  He draws the line in the middle between those two extremes, and plays with a balance that’s clearly NBA-ready.

Russell did turn it over five times in his first Summer League game, but you could sense that the Lakers were trying to show-out for the crowd a little bit more than usual.  Regardless, he had a great feel for the game right off the bat.  To start the third quarter, he even had an impressive sequence of getting to the rim with his signature left-handed drive, and knocking down a step-back jumper from the elbow.

Altogether, Russell scored eight points on just eight shot attempts for the game, but also delivered six assists.

The early signs show that he still has a lot of work to do on the defensive end, but that’s nothing to freak out about right away.  When guarding perimeter players, Russell may have a habit of going under screens, and that would be very costly for him on the NBA level:

Russell chose not to fight over the screen above, as Lorenzo Brown gave him the business with a 3-pointer, plus a foul.  With that amount of space after a screen is set, you have to be disciplined enough to attack over, not under:

It’s just Summer League play, but the Lakers should hope Russell develops into a tough guard to score against.  It’s something Byron Scott will drill into his head every day until Scott’s tenure is up in L.A., because we know how much he values that end of the court.  Russell collected seven personal fouls in Friday’s loss, but was insanely aggressive on Minnesota’s ball-handlers.

Even if the Lakers had selected Jahlil Okafor with the second pick, they’d still have some grooming to do with him on the defensive skills.  So, it’s nothing but a work in progress.

What truly matters is the offensive genius we’re seeing out of Russell in the early goings, because someone has to take the ball out of Kobe’s hand and put some structure into that system this year.

Jordan Clarkson

I’ve been on record before, and there’s no way I’m backing off now:  Jordan Clarkson will be the Lakers’ best player next season, if Kobe Bryant goes through another mid-season injury.  Even with Bryant on the floor, it’s not a gamble to say that Clarkson will be more efficient.

Coming off a season in which he earned All-Rookie First Team honors, shot 45% from the field, and scored 20+ points on 10 occasions, Clarkson still hasn’t received the proper respect he deserves.  As I briefly discussed in June, Clarkson couldn’t have ended the 2014-15 season any better than he did. The elite company he joined with his overall rookie season was more special than people realize, and perhaps everyone wouldn’t be going nuts over his Friday performance if they watched him in February-April.

Being a sophomore on this Summer League roster, Clarkson has naturally just filled in as the “leader” of the team.  Of the 60 shots Los Angeles attempted on Friday, 17 of them were from Clarkson — the only member to take over 9 shots for the night.  He went 8-of-17 from the field, making two of his seven outside attempts and scoring 23 points.  He was nearly the game’s leading scorer, but Minnesota’s Zach LaVine (24 points) decided to catch fire from long-range.

Clarkson had the crowd on its feet after many of his athletic plays, but the most outstanding part of his game was simple:  He’s set on getting to the rim even more.

Last season, Clarkson was still getting thrown into the fire as a rookie and was probably expected to do more than his skill-level could handle.  After all, it is the Lakers franchise, where expectations are never lowered just because you’re a rookie.  As unfair as it is, that’s how it always seems.

As a result, Clarkson didn’t really have the frame of mind to get to the foul line a lot.  He still attacked quite a lot each game, but now it seems to be at a whole new level.  Clarkson’s free throw attempt rate last season was just .265, which was lower than Nick Young (.311) and Jeremy Lin (.410). Free throw attempt rate is a measure of free throw attempts per field goal attempts, and there was something to be said about ranking lower than Young and Lin.

Young’s shot selection is the wildest in the league, and Lin is nowhere near as great of a rim-attacker Clarkson has turned into — and will continue to improve on.

Thus, Clarkson has made it a priority to beat other guards off the dribble, and attack the paint at every opening the defense gives him.  He shot seven free throws in Friday’s game, and only got to the line 2.7 times per game throughout his rookie season.

To start the game, the sophomore showed a distinct improvement in his shooting ability.  His form already looks cleaner, and he’s much more decisive when he catches the ball.

In the first quarter, Clarkson utilized a great flex-offense set by the Lakers.  “Flex” usually deals with a lot of movement through the lane, causing congestion in the middle while the offensive player tries to get free on the wing.  Coming off a solid screen by Tarik Black, Clarkson scored on a nice mid-ranger from Russell’s bounce pass:

Not even two minutes later, he was able to pick up on something he loved during his rookie year:  Using ball-screens to get to an open mid-range shot. He worked terrifically with Black and Randle on the high perimeter, as their big bodies would hold off Clarkson’s defender for just enough time to let Clarkson find a mid-range jumper.

His two most eye-catching moments, however, came in the paint.

If there’s one thing we sure know about this kid, it’s that he’s always looking for a chance to make a big splash.  In the second quarter, as he realized a missed shot was about to come off the rim, Clarkson hustled from the free throw line to slam home the put-back:

It got the Vegas crowd in an uproar, because one of the biggest plays of the Summer League likely happened in the first day.  For a guard, Clarkson’s leap off the floor is scary, and he showed it in half-court AND full-court situations on Friday.

Another positive that came from his performance was his use of the double-team.

Clarkson showed that he’s capable of running point guard duties when Russell needs a rest this season, and that last season (at point guard) wasn’t a fluke for him.  He’s unbelievable with the ball when he needs to be, such as his crazy split of a double-team in the third quarter.  After blazing through a Wolves’ double, he got into the paint and drew a three-point play near the restricted area.

He’s not afraid of getting contested at the rim.  He won’t stop short and pull up for a longer shot, just because he sees rim-protectors sliding over.  He actually embraces the contact.  Most importantly, he wants to get better at being a stronger voice on the floor.

"“I got to keep working on my leadership skills, in terms of communication and talking [on the court],” Clarkson said after his Friday performance.  “We’ve been beating up each other in practice all week, so it felt good to get out there and play against someone else.”"

Clarkson is exactly what the Lakers need moving forward into the post-Kobe era, and people are finally coming around on his potential.  Just in Day 1, the world got a sweet taste of what this 23-year-old can be about.

Julius Randle

The player everyone’s eyes should’ve been on heading into this Summer League is Julius Randle.  It’s not everyday you see someone completely break their leg in their first official NBA game, then fight as hard as Randle did to come back.  For any normal human (like myself), it may have demoralized them.

Nonetheless, Randle entered the Lakers’ Summer League with a more athletic body (which is scary enough) and a much more determined mindset.

Russell and Clarkson recently labeled Randle a “beast” with the ball in his hands, and that was pretty evident on Friday.  Randle had numerous possessions of driving from the perimeter into the lane, using his stronger shoulders to open up that much-needed space for a shot.  Every smart player in this league knows intelligent, slick moves that help them create a few inches (or feet) of space.

For Kobe, it’s his unmatched footwork.  For Stephen Curry and Chris Paul, it’s their devastating step-backs along the perimeter.  For LeBron, Blake Griffin, and even youngsters like Julius Randle, it’s their unworldly body type — knocking back defenders with legal bumps that don’t seem excessive.

Randle did drop about 20 pounds heading into April of this year. His motivation was to become quicker, getting to his spots much easier than he did at Kentucky.  But, since then, he’s added a noticeable amount of muscle in his upper-body.  It’s made it even more difficult to stop him on his bull-in-a-china-shop drives.

It didn’t take long at all for Randle’s increased foot-speed to be illustrated in the Summer League, with his first step allowing him to get right around Adreian Payne:

It’s impressive with Randle, as he now seems to have a wider first step than usual.  Defenders that were used to watching film on him during college and last year’s preseason, will now be shocked to see the transformation in his drives.  He’s probably twice as fast as he was in his rookie body, and his face-up game from post is going to be one of the positives for Los Angeles this year.

Although he looked impressive towards the end of the game, Randle still finished 3-of-9 from the field, with just one rebound in his 20 minutes of play.  He acknowledges that it’s going to be a step-by-step process, though, as the games go by.

"“I was definitely rusty,” Randle said.  “I didn’t really catch a rhythm until the end, and it was kind of late. I missed so many [close shots], so much stuff that I’m used to hitting.  I was off defensively, too, so I was a little rusty.”"

Everyone should understand that it’s almost the equivalent of Paul George returning after his horrifying leg injury last season.  Randle hadn’t played against real competition in more than eight months, which somehow fell under the radar.  You shouldn’t expect anything sensational out of him until at least training camp, when he gets a full two months of play under his belt.

"“I’m not worried about it, it’s a long week,” Randle said.  “And, the goal is the beginning of the season.”"

Randle also pointed out that he wasn’t thrilled about the limitations he’s having to face during the Summer League.  The training staff only wanted him to play around 20 minutes, and he’s supposed to be taking off Saturday for precautionary reasons.

As strong of a bull Randle is, it’s understandable that he’s anxious to get as many reps in as possible.  For the sake of the Lakers’ season ahead, though, guys should understand that Summer League is a chance for the young guns to earn roster spots.  It would be crushing if Randle experienced any setbacks, so the training staff is just looking out for his career.

For someone that went to sleep every night, crying tears of sorrow for the Lakers being so atrocious in free agency, these three work-horses should lift your spirits.

For someone that got laughter and joy out of seeing the Lakers struggle … you better hope it was fun while it lasted.  Because in no time, these guys will be making their marks.

“You know, we’re young,” Clarkson said.  “And we’re definitely going to grow.”

That’s all the Western Conference needs.  More growth.