A Lost Season in LA

The Lakers have suddenly won three games in a row and everyone is beginning to think that they can be a great team. Sure, Kobe has been playing out of his mind all season and they did beat OKC, but it is far too soon and far too egregious to call the Lakers a good team just because they've won three games in what is their fourth restart of the season. 

There is zero shot that Kobe Bryant can continue to put up 14 assists per game and shoot at such a blistering percentage. Furthermore, D'antoni simply will not allow the Lakers to play their brand of basketball, rather opting for his idiotic style of up tempo basketball. It is important to remember that Oklahoma City has lost to the Timberwolves this year. They've also lost to the Wizards. There is parity in the NBA and on any given night any team can win. That is what makes basketball so great.

We all know that the lakers can score 110 points a game, what we don't know is that they can consistently hold opponents to under 100 points a game. They're old and slow and play horrible team defense because they feel they can simply our score any opponent. It's sad to think that a team that has the Black Mamba, MWP, and D12 would be thought of as weak defensively but that is what they are.

The youth movement in the NBA is apparent and the young teams will simply be able to run the Lakers off the court and the results will be awful...especially once the playoffs come. Lakerland should have optimism but the Lakers need to get to at least the 6 seed to have a shot at getting out of the first round and because of the huge hole they've dug themselves into, it doesn't seem likely that that will be able to happen. Lets assume the Lakers make the playoffs. In this situation lets say they get to the 6 seed, that means they'd either play OKC, San Antonio, or the Clippers in a first round series. In a best of 7 series the Lakers lack the depth and athleticism to compete with any of those teams. The Western Conference is going to come down to three teams: the Thunder, Spurs, and Clippers. Lest we forget about the Grizzlies or the Warriors. And there is also the Nuggets. Simply put, the Lakers are behind in the arms race. 

When the Heat assembled a super team they did it with great care, surrounding their stars with elite defenders and shooters. The Lakers have 4 superstars and 8 nobodies. As sad as it is to say, Kobe's best year may be in front of him right now but his championship years are well behind him.