The Los Angeles Lakers went through the preseason winless for a number of reasons.
First and foremost was a notable lack of cohesiveness among all of the team’s new additions. Russell Westbrook’s insane turnover numbers were telling of how bad the on-court chemistry currently is.
But that wasn’t the only problem.
LA has some very real positional and playing time dilemmas that the coaching staff needs to get sorted sooner rather than later.
This week, first-year Laker DeAndre Jordan got brutally honest about the team’s biggest issue right now aside from chemistry: the logjam that exists in the frontcourt between him, Dwight Howard and Anthony Davis.
“I think there will be games where certain guys are in and out,” Jordan said.
“You know it’s a long season and a lot of people say that we’re an old crew, so I’m sure guys will take some rest nights or some unlucky mishaps or whatever it may be. But I think when guys get in there, we’ll be able to pick each other up as best as possible… But as far as starting, we haven’t gotten any indication of who is but whoever is in there, I’m sure they’ll do a great job and then you got the next-man-up attitude.”
Jordan also pointed out how well Howard had played in the preseason, aside from his fouling woes.
“Dwight is extremely physical in there, sometimes he gets picked on [by the refs],” he said. “But that’s just who he’s been for the past going on 18 years, so when he comes in he’s a hard roller, a hard screen-setter, super physical trying to create extra possessions for our team and just trying to create havoc underneath the basket on both ends of the floor.”
Jordan also maintained that Davis was going to dominate in 2021-22.
When Terry Bradshaw saw what Erin Andrews was wearing, he couldn’t help himself. https://t.co/Yg0qPqcErK
— Game 7 (@game7__) October 15, 2021
“And then with AD, with him at the four or the five, it’s a problem for a ton of defenses,” he added. “He’s able to space the floor and switch on pick-and-rolls onto guards… And then when we have a big lineup, he’s able to be a playmaker some and create and have fours on him, which a lot of the time he’s taller and more physical and able to shoot over a lot of those guys. But I think that will be used the way the games need us to use.”
All in all, while Jordan acknowledged that the logjam in the front court was an issue, he believed it was one that could work itself out. His thoughts, of course, echoed Davis’ in that regarding.
This is going to be an interesting season for the purple and gold. Expectations are high obviously, but time will tell if they’re truly realistic. At the moment nobody is putting too much stock into the team’s disastrous preseason run, but if it bleeds into the regular season, panic alarms will start going off.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
