El SEGUNDO — Alright class, we’re 30 games into the 2024-25 NBA season. What have we learned?
Dalton, how about you? What’s something you’ve learned about, say, your teammate LeBron James?
“How much he loves to play Madden,” Lakers rookie Dalton Knecht said when he was quizzed during a media scrum on Friday after practice at the UCLA Health Training Center.
Uh-huh. OK, and how about the rest of you, Lakers Fans? What have these first 30 games taught you?
How about that the Lakers aren’t automatically better with James on the court? That for the first time in his illustrious 22 NBA seasons, James’ team has a better net rating with him off the court than on – minus-5.50 (on) compared with plus-4.32 (off) so far this season.
And so what does that tell you about this season’s Lakers team, currently the sixth seed in a deep Western Conference and 17-13 overall?
Anyone?
OK, I’ll tell you: That they’re actually pretty good. That they could even be really good.
And, no, that’s nothing we didn’t already know.
These first 30 games have been mostly review. We’ve just been going back over the subject matter we studied last season, when the Lakers’ roster remained an unfinished puzzle, potentially just a couple of nice-fitting pieces from doing what the Dallas Mavericks did after filling out their squad with Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington and surging from eighth place all the way to the NBA Finals.
Which was, of course, reminiscent of what happened when the Lakers filled out their locker room with Rui Hachimura, D’Angelo Russell and Jarred Vanderbilt around the trade deadline in 2023, turning what started as a 2-10 season into a Western Conference finals run.
Now, of course, it’s JJ Redick’s job to figure out how best to fit the pieces together, and he’s proving a savvy problem-solver. His decision to move Max Christie into the starting lineup, for example, has seemed to unlock Austin Reaves by unburdening him defensively; since Christie has joined the starting lineup seven games ago, Reaves is averaging 19.3 points per game, up from 16.7 previously. Also, the Lakers are 5-2.
“We’ve competed, we’ve played together. We’ve tried to play the right way,” Redick said Friday, reflecting on his team’s December rebound after it started the month by losing consecutive games, to Minnesota and Miami, by a combined 70 points, and then falling in overtime against Atlanta.
“I like,” the first-year head coach said, “where our team is trending.”
Redick is right.
The Lakers are showing potential, despite those embarrassing hiccups.
And despite the uncharacteristic slump that helped warp James’ numbers as he approached his 40th birthday on Monday.
And despite extended injury absences for Vanderbilt (who has played zero games), Christian Wood (zero games) and Jaxson Hayes (11 games, though his return is at least visible on the horizon, something that Redick said couldn’t be said for the other two).
And so it’s time to grade the Lakers accordingly. It’s time to send home the progress report that General Manager Rob Pelinka promised on Sept. 25: “We believe in this group,” he said then, adding that it would take 30 games or so to properly evaluate what the team has this season.
So, again, what have we learned in this 30-game review?
That he was right to believe, broadly, in the group featuring James and Anthony Davis and several of the players who made that foray to the 2023 conference finals.
But the Lakers still desperately need some dependable depth in the post. And they still could really use a 3-and-D wing, someone who can be counted on to both hit shots and lock down opponents, and not just one or the other.
Because if they want this puzzle to actually resemble a championship image when they’re done, they better be scouring the league for the right pieces to flush it out – without subtracting so many assets to make the finished product unrecognizable.
The wrong answer would be going after Chicago Bulls star Zach LaVine and his big contract, on which he has three years and $215 million remaining.
A better answer would be closing a deal for someone like Walker Kessler, Utah’s proven rim protector on a rookie contract, the 7-footer who is averaging a career-high 10.3 points and 10.9 rebounds to go along with 2.9 blocked shots per game.
And giving themselves a deadline before the official trade deadline. Because between Oklahoma City (24-5) at the top of the Western Conference, and Portland (10-2), Utah (7-22) and New Orleans (5-26) at the bottom, the entire rest of the West is snarled in a traffic jam. The Lakers were, as of practice Friday, just two games out of fourth place and two games above 11th.
A bad couple of weeks and they could set themselves up to fail to even make the playoffs – such potential, potentially squandered. Or they could sit down and finish the dang puzzle. It could come out looking really good.