Alright, the upcoming 2015-16 is just around the corner. That means it's another season of Lakers basketball. Welcome in to your preview for the Los Angeles Lakers' 2015-16 regular season campaign. If you guys are new to my blog or if you haven't been following any of my posts for Raiders' football, I made new changes to Regular Season Preview posts. So, they are organized into sections about which I feel are important to cover and what stood out to me in the preseason. And as usual, I provide the schedule breakdown and my final thoughts and predictions. Let's pop this bad boy up.
Russell, Randle, Clarkson - Ready to Carry the Torch?
Preparation for Lakers basketball after Kobe Bryant is inevitable, whether us Laker fans like it or not. This is a new challenge that the Lakers have to embark. No top-tier free agents are coming and most of all, no general manager is going to fall for Mitch Kupchak's ploy to trade their star player to acquire a "bag of chips and peanuts," meaning acquiring draft picks (unless it's multiple first rounders) and players that no other team wants. We've been spoiled that just because we're the Lakers and we have 16 championships, it automatically constitutes that top-tier players would come over and play for the team, when in reality that hasn't happened the last three offseasons. So the Lakers have no choice but to go the old school way of building a team and that's through the draft. The Lakers had the 2nd overall pick this offseason and they decided to not use it on Jahlil Okafor and instead, use it to select D'Angelo Russell. Personally, I was on board with the Okafor pick, but I've gotten over that and showed support to Russell. I thought by pairing him with Julius Randle, it would create an effective pick and roll duo for years to come. In the first preseason against the Jazz, my prediction looked promising as Russell was able to get Randle for an open dunk in one play, Randle found Russell cutting inside for layup on another, and on another play, Randle almost made an and 1 dunk after a beautiful bounce pass from Russell on the fast break. Transitioning to Julius Randle, the dude is a beast. The foot injury last year was disastrous for his development and his game would've been a step further if weren't for that injury. He just brings a rare combination of power, versatility, and ball handling. Whether he's posting up or accelerating off the ball and driving, defenders can only hope he misses or just foul because even when they play good defense on Randle, he is just too strong, just ask Metta World Peace during the offseason. Next, we look at Mr. All-Rookie First Team, Jordan Clarkson. he could've just been satisfied with the achievement and relaxed for the offseason. Instead, he continued to play in the Summer League and tried out for the Philippines' National Basketball team for the FIBA Asia Championship games. The guy just eats, sleeps, and breathes basketball, taking "Ball is Life" to another level and it showed in the preseason. His jump shot looked a lot more clean and he's making his decisions with great confidence. Overall, the chemistry buildup of Russell, Randle, and Clarkson is going to be detrimental to how bright or bleak the Lakers' future will be and they can start establishing a stable core for the future this season.
Kobe Bryant's Health
20 seasons playing in the same uniform just screams "loyalty" for the perennial alpha male of the Lakers, Kobe Bryant. However, with all the games played and the amount of minutes logged, the wear and tear is showing, in fact it has been showing dating back to his unfortunate achilles injury in 2013. Since then, Kobe has yet to play a full season. A knee injury ruled him out for the rest of the 2013-14 season, a torn rotator cuff injury put him out for the 2014-15 season, and now he's battling yet another knee injury with his status to play in the first game vs. the Minnesota Timberwolves is in doubt. That's not a great way to start in celebrating 20 seasons donning the purple and gold. This season is portrayed as Kobe Bryant's farewell tour and his opening act is potentially going to be a "no show." It's a sad truth. Kobe is not the same player and he can't fight through injuries like he can in his heydays. Monitoring Kobe Bryant's health is going to be a big necessity in order for the Lakers to get on the right track of winning games and further the development of the young players on this team. I think the transition of putting him at small forward is a sound idea. Look at the guards in West: Stephen Curry, James Harden, Klay Thompson, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul; Kobe Bryant cannot catch up to them like he used to and most of those guards are in the prime of their career. Also, from an offensive standpoint, it allows him to play off the ball because his shot selection and percentage when being the primary ball handler at this point of his career is just beyond horrible. By playing off more, it'll allow him to settle for more high percentage shots and he won't have to face double and triple teams on a consistent basis, albeit teams will still game plan for him defensively because of the respect they still for his game.
Marcelo Huertas a Nice Overseas Find
When I was looking at the preseason highlights, the one player that stood out to me the most was Marcelo Huertas. Now keep in mind, I don't keep track of overseas basketball, but I've heard good things about him when he was playing for F.C. Barcelona and for Brazil's Basketball team in the Olympics. When the Lakers signed him, I thought, "meh, he's just going to be a camp body, nothing else," but he definitely earned a roster spot on this Laker roster. His court vision and feel for the game is simply impeccable. Not a lot of international players find their way in their first season playing in the NBA, but Huertas played like he has been around the league for a long time and you don't see that often. The Lakers needed an established point guard since the Steve Nash experiment didn't work. They needed someone to mentor D'Angelo Russell and fasten his development. And Huertas provides that mentor role. Not to mention, the 2nd unit has a better flow with Huertas as the primary ball handler. Yeah the Lakers signed Lou Williams, but could you imagine if he was the 2nd unit point guard? Him and Nick Young would have a contest to see who can hit the most impossible three pointers and the ball movement wouldn't be that great. But with Huertas in the lineup, it creates opportunities for Williams and Young to get high percentage looks and it just makes the whole unit a lot better than projected on paper.
Schedule Breakdown
The rarity of looking at the Lakers schedule this season is that they don't have too many nationally televised games to start the season. They only have five nationally televised games for the remainder of this year: the opener vs. Minnesota, November 24 @ Golden State, December 11 @ San Antonio, December 17 vs. Houston, and the Christmas Day game vs. the Clippers. That's workable for me. All kidding aside, late Octover-Mid November is a pretty favorable stretch for the Lakers, despite the fact they have a four game road trip early on, but most of the teams are pretty winnable like Denver, Detroit, Orlando, New York. Then late November, the schedule's brutality starts considering they have to see the likes of Portland, Golden State, Clippers, San Antonio, Memphis, and OKC and it'll remain that way for the rest of the season. If Kobe Bryant stays healthy, most of the games against those teams can be competitive than expected, but other than that it's a steep mountain to climb.
Conclusion
Overall, this team can't win now for Kobe Bryant and build for the future. There has to be a lesser of the two evils and from the looks of things, the Lakers are contempt with rebuilding. I don't have a lot of crazy expectations for this team because after all, they are stuck in a really stacked Western Conference. The Warriors are the champions until dethroned, the Clippers made moves to add proven veterans and brought back DeAndre Jordan from a really entertaining free agent saga with the Mavs, the Spurs managed to snatch LaMarcus Aldridge and they are projected to own the West, James Harden and Dwight Howard are going to take another step in their growth as a duo in Houston, Kevin Durant is coming back for the Thunder, and Anthony Davis is looking to become one of the best power forwards in the league today for the Pelicans. That is too much to handle for a team that is essentially in the rebuilding phase. This Laker team has a lot of young talent that has yet to be unlocked by the right coaching staff. However, as long as Kobe Bryant is on the floor, this Laker team will compete. But nonetheless, I see a team that is locked in to finish possibly 2 or 3 standings above the Western Conference cellar. No flashy expectations, but as always, GO LAKERS!
vs. Minnesota Timberwolves, Q-by-Q Reaction, Halftime, and Full Recap posts on Wednesday, October 28 at 7:30 PM Pacific Time
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