Mid-Season Report Card: Lakers

AD is set to return soon, so how do the Lakers stack up against other contenders moving forward?

Buyout season

The Lakeshow is struggling on the offense end, and it can be attributed to their lack of firepower from range. The troubling truth is that this year's buyout and trade deadline market is not exactly enticing for most teams. Wesley Matthews was supposed to be thee guy to rain in some threes, but LA will have to explore other options for a viable deep range deadeye.

Another interesting facet of LA and their two open roster spots is the Damian Jones situation. While he didn't show a whole lot on either side of the ball, the Lakers need someone to eat fouls and be a lob/rebounding threat. Whether Jones is that guy is unclear, and it will be interesting to see what Vogel, Pelinka and company assess his value to be.

The THT experiment has been somewhat incomplete so far, in that he has tremendous talent, but consistency is a clear problem. It's what you would expect from a young player, and he'll get there. It's unclear if the Lakers are taking calls on him.

The beauty of their current roster flexibility is that no one needs to be traded if they just want to add a couple of shooters who want to leave their team for a contender. Without enough assets to liquidate, LA will have their eyes on potential buyout players. Andre Drummond has been mentioned as well.

Struggles against good teams

There was a narrative floating around last year that the Lakers couldn't beat good teams. This was clearly debunked with the improvements in the second half of the season as well as the ultimate title. It's expected that good teams will challenge them, that's a given. The truth, however, is that the Lakers' struggles do not correlate with a real problem. Without Anthony Davis they aren't expected to be even 80% of themselves. LA wised up and gave AD the rest he needed so that he wouldn't aggravate his injury.

They'll be fine, and veering on the side of caution is imperative to this team's hopes of defending their championship.

Matchups

If the top four teams in the Western Conference remain the same, the Lakers would most likely be looking at a second round matchup with the Suns or the Clippers. Phoenix would be almost formidable, but beating the Lakers four times seems unlikely.

The Clippers on the other hand would certainly be a handful, and it seems as if it could be a matchup for the ages. No one on that roster would be able to stop Anthony Davis, and that could be it for the Clippers' hopes.

Utah is an interesting one. Their offensive firepower is extremely difficult to slow down, even for the defensive juggernaut Lakers. LeBron and company would have trouble matching them point for point especially with their lack of perimeter threats. Don't bet against the defending champs, though. Utah has yet to prove postseason success, but a potential WCF between these two teams would be a dogfight.

Grade:

B