Kold
Well-Known Member
Statically speaking, you are 100 percent correct...but in my opinion it's more about the pace of the game. We average 100.3 possessions per game which is 6th in the league. The Nets, Warriors, Suns, Nuggets, and Rockets round out the top 5. The top 6 are also ranked 30th, 19th, 29th, 27th, 24th, and 26th in ppg. allowed.i think that is kind hard to say with guys that are so young- and young guys typically are overmatched defensively when they come in the league-
the thing that concerns me is that they did spend a ton of money- 52$ million in salary this year (in total they spent $200 million dollars on Clarkson, Deng, Mozgov, and Black) and they have the worst defensive team in the league- both efficiency wise- giving up over 110 pts a game, and shooting percentage wise letting their opponents shoot 47.8% per game. I dont think people would have expected them to have the worst defense in the entire league after signing Mozgov and Deng who are primarily defensive players.
just for some perspective- the middle team in the NBA gives up 105 pts a game (Indiana), and 45.2% shooting (Atlanta).
Offensive efficiency the Lakers were 29th last year- and have jumped up to 19th this year. Shooting percentage wise they are 19th in the league this year- and were dead last last year---- so they have gone from being an awful offensive team to a mediocre offensive team this year- so they have shown improvement on offense.
Where they have shown particular improvement offensively is from the 3 pt line- last year they were dead last in the NBA at 31.7% from 3. This year they are 14th in the NBA at 35.8% from 3. That makes sense going from Scott's archaic offense to Walton's more wide open system.
It hasn't been this way the last few weeks, but overall, we've had a bend, don't break type of defense that gets key stops in the 4th quarter. I'm fine with that type of defense so long as we put up points, although the problem is that it's tougher when you have inconsistency with young players on offense. Also, the injury bug has hit us pretty hard this year as well