One NBA insider believes what seemed like a great plan for the Los Angeles Lakers in the offseason is failing miserably and they are in major trouble.
The 2023-24 NBA season is a month old and there have already been a few surprises. After a horrid finish to last season, the Dallas Mavericks have won eight of their first 10. Plus, the Philadelphia 76ers have shown they never really needed James Harden as they currently have the best record in the NBA at 8-1.
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There have also been some unexpected slow starts for teams that are viewed as playoff locks this season. Julius Randle’s poor play for the first couple of weeks hampered the New York Knicks, and the Los Angeles Lakers enter Monday with just a 5-4 record following a season where they reached the Western Conference Finals.
Recently, Sportsnaut spoke with NBC Sports’ NBA managing editor and league insider Kurt Helin about the slow starts for some playoff teams from 2022-23. While he thinks the Knicks and the Kings — who are 4-4 to begin the week — will be fine and have fixable problems, he believes the Lakers have some serious problems that may not be improvable any time soon.
Depth is again a problem for Los Angeles Lakers in 2023-24
“I think the Lakers problem, beyond injuries and Lebron talking about the lack of cohesion; look, Jarred Vanderbilt’s been out and everybody’s like, ‘Okay great, Jarred Vanderbilt’s been out.’ He’s their best perimeter defender and it shows,” Helin told Sportsnaut. “It really shows how much they’ve missed him. Anthony Davis missed a game with the hip, [and] Jaxson Hayes missed a game.
“There was all this talk this summer — and I wrote about it — that they’ve got all this depth that can withstand injuries,” he continued. “No, it has not worked out that way. The [on the court, off the court] numbers for Lebron are just stupid. For everything the Lakers have done to pass the torch and get depth, they [still] live and die with Lebron James. [He’s] arguably the greatest player of all time, [but] he’s going to turn 39 in December. You can’t lead on him at 38 minutes a night and expect this to go well.”
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The Los Angeles Lakers signed players like Gabe Vincent, Christian Wood, and Cam Reddish this summer to add proven depth to the roster but all three have made little impact this season. Furthermore, Austin Reaves has gotten off to a slow start after landing a sizable long-term contract in the offseason.
If James and Davis do have to miss time this year, which history shows they will, the Lakers are not showing the reliable depth to be able to survive being without either star for very long. This is worrisome because they have struggled with Davis and James playing most of their games so far this season.