Los Angeles Lakers: Positive Signs After First Preseason Loss

The Los Angeles Lakers’ training camp — in Hawaii — has turned out to be the most entertaining event of early October. From the classic quotability of Kobe Bryant in his 20th season, to the excitement of watching the team’s youth mature with each practice, there’s never a shortage of content.

After five days of camp, Byron Scott had to prepare for the Lakers’ first preseason game on Sunday night. The Utah Jazz, a strong candidate for the Western Conference’s eight seed this season, traveled to Hawaii for what would be an unbalanced crowd. Regardless if it’s the preseason or summer league, the Lakers brand seems to be alive and fruitful. Fans even traveled from California to Honolulu, for a game that doesn’t matter.

While we can’t be prone to overreactions during the first week of October, it’s still essential to look for positives and negatives surrounding the preseason action. Rarely do you see lineup rotations and offensive distribution carry over from the preseason to regular season, but focusing on the younger roster pieces is always the main goal here.

Scott decided to give the nod to his probable regular season starting five for this game. It included D’Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson, Kobe Bryant, Julius Randle, and Roy Hibbert. Four pieces of this lineup are different from what Scott had to start with last season (Lin, Kobe, Wes Johnson, Boozer, and Hill). With a more athletic lineup, Bryant has been encouraged to slide to the small forward slot.

During the first half, there were many productive qualities of the Lakers’ play.

For the most part, ball movement is back in Hollywood.  Well, to be precise … it’s back with the purple and gold.  The cross-town Clippers have filled the void over the last four seasons, but the importance of shareability and offensive cohesion has completely died since Phil Jackson departed.  The triangle offense kept everyone on the same page, even during the times of Kobe pushing the 30-shot mark.  Wesley Johnson’s recent comments on media day supported this notion, as he claimed that “nobody was playing together” during his Laker years.

Rookie D’Angelo Russell was the catalyst for this increased tempo and ball movement. Russell only collected three assists on the night, but the ball rarely stuck on the perimeter during his 21 minutes of play. Even against Utah’s starting core, Russell engaged in some dazzling two-man action with Julius Randle.  As Randle led a dribble hand-off to his point guard on the wing, he successfully got Trey Burke behind the play. At the same time, Russell caught Derrick Favors sleeping on the roll man:

This was only the beginning of Russell’s connection with the sophomore who’s full of enthusiasm this year. Randle was in the same boat of Paul George this offseason, in more ways than one.  Both suffered gruesome leg injuries in 2014, and you could sense the exuberance in both of their voices during this summer.  They wanted to get back on the court, fully healthy, with no restrictions.

11 months is a long time to go without playing against real competition, and that’s exactly what Randle had to deal with. He didn’t impress too much in the summer league (against weaker talent), so there were tons of eyes on him for his first preseason affair.

Russell and Randle not only showed compatibility in the halfcourt set, but they also worked in tandem on the fastbreak.  Randle has made it a point of emphasis to push himself down the floor this season, and he happens to have the best rookie floor general to make things smoother:

After the game, Russell’s point guard tactics were appropriately graded by teammate Kobe Bryant. Although the two of them didn’t see the floor much together, the team’s veteran and most respected workhorse is paying close attention to the rookie’s strengths.

"“His vision is astronomical,” Bryant said after the game. “Not too many passers can do that. If there’s a crack, that ball is to you.”"

It may not appear to be much since we’re only going off 21 minutes, with some of those against Utah’s second string guys. However, it’s a starting point. What we’ve been presented with early on, is that Russell is more unselfish than expected … if that’s even possible. He realizes there’s a wide variation of wing talents on this roster, and it’s on his shoulders to get everyone comfortable looks at the rim. Whether that’s Randle, his backcourt counterparts, or Roy Hibbert in the post, it’s going to center around Russell this year.

More than anything, an underrated aspect of this is how much Kobe is embracing it. Bryant took five shots in his only quarter of action, but it makes you wonder what his ideal number is for the regular season. There’s too many young, important players beside Kobe for him to take 20.4 attempts again like last season. Plus, simple logic says that 20+ shots for Kobe won’t be maximizing the “astronomical” facilitating of Russell.  So, while the offense does depend on Russell’s rookie growth this year, it can easily be hampered by Kobe’s ego.

Another significant note from the preseason opener was also in the backcourt. Sixth man, Lou Williams, wasn’t stolen off the free agent market for nothing.

Mitch Kupchak was able to snag Williams with a three-year, $21 million contract this offseason. It was terrific value, even for a bench player, considering Williams is the NBA’s reigning Sixth Man of the Year winner with a PER of nearly 20 last season. Put it this way:  His PER was higher than Kobe, he shot more efficiently than Kobe from the field and 3-point range, and he has a ridiculously great skill for drawing whistles.

When you put all of it in a blender, there’s really no arguing that Williams is worth $7 million annually. He’s more in love with his shot-jacking than he was with his two girlfriends, but he’s giving you quality production in a second unit that needs  a decisive, experienced scorer. Most people forget Williams has been in the league for 11 years now, and he’s not even over the 30-year mark in age.

In Sunday’s action, Williams was the best player on the court for Los Angeles. Although he shot 4-of-12 from the floor, his 14 points came in timely fashion for the Lakers. It was during their run to take the lead — which didn’t last too long — and he energized the team with his rim-attacking. Only four of his 12 shots came from beyond the arc, so it doesn’t appear to be the direct cloning of Nick Young for this roster.

Williams’ experience is already evident, and it helps that he’s having a lot of joy with this Lakers group:

The Lakers don’t have a chance to reach the Western Conference’s threshold of 46-49 wins for a playoff spot, but they do have a chance to lead the league in breathtaking dimes. Or, how many times you rewind the game to see exactly what just happened.

It wasn’t Williams’ play-making that shined the most, though.  He may cause you to pull your hair out sometimes with his shot selection, but he certainly makes up for it with his exceptional foul-drawing ability.  Williams was able to get to the line seven times during his 27 minutes, with a free throw rate of .583 for the night.  Considering he was also a 86.1% free throw shooter last season with Toronto, it’s easily going to be his most valuable trait for the Lakers this year.

You have to think about it through a certain lens. Williams’ free throw rate last season (in a 80-game sample) was .426 — the highest he’s reached since the 2010-11 season. Which means that, as he ages into a veteran combo guard, he’s becoming smarter with how to draw fouls (or manipulate the refs, take your pick).

Out of all players that appeared in 70 or more games for Los Angeles last year, the only guard to have a free throw rate above .400 was Jeremy Lin. Even as Lin developed a higher rate of getting to the line, though, he only converted on 79.5% of his freebies.

Take that into consideration.  Williams is using nearly half of his offensive possessions to get to the foul line. And, when he’s there, he’s providing the most efficient results on the team at 86%.  Last season, the Lakers had zero players over the 81% mark that played at least 60 games. Williams could be set to furnish the team with a lot more points this way.

Lastly, it wouldn’t be a proper Lakers game without checking in on Byron Scott’s mentality.

Scott became one of the most criticized coaches during his first year in Hollywood last season, after he consistently made comments about backing off from 3-pointers. He claimed that he definitely understood the value in them, but didn’t want his guys living and dying by the outside looks.

On the surface, his line of thinking was totally reasonable. You want to find centrism within an offense if you’re a coach.

But, the results from the Lakers during his first year were more alarming than those comments from the 2014 preseason.  Los Angeles ended up as the 6th-lowest team in terms of 3-point density last year, taking just 18.9 of their 85.6 field goals per game from 3-point range. That was only 22.1% of their shots coming from deep, which meant there was too much predictability with the Lakers … and very little spacing.

During Sunday’s preseason game, however, things may have changed with this team’s culture.

The Lakers found themselves attempting 23 outside shots in the loss, with 16 of them in the first half alone. They were on a wicked pace of 32 long-range attempts before things started to die down in the second half.

Sure, they didn’t make the most of their opportunities — shooting just 6-of-23 from deep for an ugly mark of 26.1%.  But, it’s only the preseason, and we’re all aware of the jitters, disjointedness, and rust that take place in early October.  That should be excused, for any team.

It was certainly a positive, though, because it stood out to such a great extent. During the Lakers’ eight preseason games last October, their average 3-pointers attempted was a measly 10.3 per game. Yes, that included a game in which they only managed to get up three shots from distance. Was it any coincidence for that game to be a 41-point blowout last year? I don’t believe so.

Throughout the 82-game regular season in 2014-15, the Lakers only had 13 instances of taking 25+ shots from 3-point range. So, only 15.9% of the time. It was borderline unacceptable, and now there’s no excuses for Scott to back away from a valuable weapon he can use. This roster is cut out for more risk, better offensive sets, and more perimeter action. The reward will likely pay off in the long-run.

With the increased attack from the guards, floor vision of the No. 2 overall pick, bulldozing force of Julius Randle, and more attention to defensive detail, the Lakers are heading in the right direction.

A 19-point loss wouldn’t normally support it, but it’s the smaller games within the game  that matter here.

“I just told our guys, we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Scott said. “There’s no way in the world we’re even close to where we want to be.”

The path has been mapped out for the Lakers. The destination isn’t even within sight at this moment. But at least they’re traveling.

Next: NBA: 10 Bounce-Back Candidates For 2015-16

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