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No. 14: Los Angeles Lakers
Last Season: 21-61
14h place in West; missed playoffs
The Lakers might think they've hit rock bottom over the last couple of seasons, but the dark reality is it will get worse before it gets better in Los Angeles.
Despite several key additions in the offseason, the Lakers still are significantly behind the rest of the pack in the Western Conference playoff picture. Worse yet, their 2016 first-round pick is owed to Philadelphia with only top-3 protection, meaning the Lakers are in the unenviable position of being bad enough to miss the playoffs (perhaps even bad enough to have a top-7 selection), but not bad enough to assure they'll keep their pick.
The path of the 2014-15 season can be defined by three events: the hiring of Byron Scott as head coach, the opening-night injury of 2014 lottery pick Julius Randle and Kobe Bryant's pursuit of surpassing Michael Jordan in the scoring record book (and subsequent season-ending injury not long thereafter).
Coach Scott's archaic philosophy regarding usage of the 3-point shot hamstrung what little chance the Lakers had of being an efficient basketball team. Despite not featuring a single player (other than backup big Robert Sacre) who shot greater than 40 percent from long 2-point range, the Lakers somehow put up the second most long 2-point jumpers in the NBA last season, second only to the New York Knicks. It's easy to blame the team's struggles on a lack of talent, but the roster actually was improved over the season before. Simply, being bad isn't an excuse for bad strategy.
Randle's injury occurred 15 minutes into his NBA career. The highest Lakers draft selection since James Worthy in 1982, Randle wasn't expected to change the course of Lakers history, but he was supposed to be a bright spot. That ended up being second-round pick Jordan Clarkson, who made the first team All-Rookie squad.
It's debatable whether Clarkson could have made the splash he did without Bryant's injury. Beyond Scott's coaching missteps, Bryant's domineering style of play led to his hijacking of plays, belittling teammates in practice, horrific shot selection and him gunning his way to 37 percent shooting (not to mention a 48 percent true shooting percentage) from the field on a usage rate of almost 35 percent, second only to Russell Westbrook. If the goal was to pass Michael Jordan on the charts by any means necessary, then mission accomplished. But it's hard to argue Kobe's play was conducive to winning basketball.
Securing the second overall pick (thus ensuring it was not conveyed to Philadelphia, who had acquired the rights to the Lakers' protected first-rounder from Phoenix) was something of a watershed moment for the team. Similarly, the eventual selection of Russell, an oversized point guard from Ohio State who excelled at the pick-and-roll, also was a coup and a departure from many of the organization's old-school philosophies. It indicated a tacit acceptance of the league's modern style of ball, which emphasizes spacing and pace.
In declining Jordan Hill's $9 million team option, and with the expiration of the deals of Steve Nash, Jeremy Lin, Carlos Boozer, Ed Davis, Wesley Johnson, Ronnie Price and Wayne Ellington, the Lakers were able to clear out a massive amount of cap space -- enough to pursue a marquee, max contract-caliber player. That target was LaMarcus Aldridge, who reportedly spurned them after a tone-deaf sales pitch in which the Lakers focused more on off-the-court amenities. Then Bryant likened Aldridge to his past second fiddle, Pau Gasol. In the end, the organizational belief in "Laker exceptionalism" turned out to be an illusion that impressed no one outside of Los Angeles County, something that pundits and league insiders had been warning for months in advance.
Still, the Lakers avoided swinging and missing completely on their offseason by signing journeyman vets Lou Williams (2015 Sixth Man of the Year) and Brandon Bass and trading for defensive stalwart Roy Hibbert. These players all have histories playing for winning programs, and beyond their on-court contributions, they will be asked to change the Lakers' losing culture.
Is this the end of Kobe Bryant? That question will hover over the Lakers all throughout the star guard's 20th NBA campaign in purple and gold, but the bigger question is how healthy the 37-year-old will be after suffering three straight season-ending injuries. Beyond Bryant, the Lakers swung and missed on big free agents for the third straight offseason, but they salvaged the summer with solid acquisitions in Hibbert, Williams and Bass.
Those players, along with promising young guns Russell, Randle and Clarkson, give the Lakers a chance to improve on last year's record -- that isn't saying much, though, since last year's team posted the worst record in franchise history. The Lakers have never missed the playoffs for three consecutive seasons ... but expect that to happen in 2015-16.
"I don't see why we don't contend for a playoff spot," said Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak. "But our young players have to grow beyond their years, and we have to stay healthy." -- Baxter Holmes
Projected Real Plus-Minus for starters
D'Angelo Russell, PG: N/A
Jordan Clarkson, SG: -2.5
Kobe Bryant, SF: -0.7
Julius Randle, PF: -0.9
Roy Hibbert, C: +1.1
Scouting reports on every player on the Lakers
Using shot data from 2014-15 and projected starters, Grantland's Kirk Goldsberry ranks each team's offensive efficiency based on square footage.
Only five teams took fewer 3s than the Lakers last season (Thanks, Byron!). Rookie D'Angelo Russell projects to shoot a solid 36 percent from distance -- the Lakers' only starter above 33 percent -- that is, if he's allowed to engage in such illicit activity.
If Kobe loves one area on the court, it's the left elbow. Sure, it's inefficient. But he's 37 years old. Let the man live! And Kobe's good from there, shooting better than 44 percent since 2011.
All About The Space: 28th (329 square feet of above-average offense)
To identify players who stretch offenses the most, ESPN Stats & Information created the Kyle Korver Effect -- a metric on a 1-100 scale, factoring in 3PT%, 3-point attempt rate (percentage of total shots that come from 3-point range) and influence on teammate FG%.
Korver Effect: Believe it or not, power forward Ryan Kelly (79.1) is the Los Angeles Lakers' best floor-spacer. SCHOENE predicts the team will shoot 34.1 percent from 3 this year, just slightly below average, but rank 21st in 3-point attempts.
This could be a tough to pill to swallow for Laker fans: on one hand, this team is definitely an upgrade over last year's roster. The addition of Hibbert should theoretically make an impact on the defensive end for a team that was second worst in the NBA last season, allowing 108 points per 100 possession. But this is still a very young team that doesn't feature much consistent shooting, and as such RPM isn't as optimistic, projecting that the Lakers will be the worst team in the conference and the second-worst team in the league with 27 wins.
Unfortunately, bad coaching and Kobe still stand in the way of the Lakers moving in the right direction. Further, the roster incongruence of having some players who would prefer a slowed down, halfcourt game paired with others who like an uptempo one makes it tough to imagine a world in which the Lakers leave anyone feeling warm and fuzzy about their play.
West No. 13 | West No. 15 | Full List
