The Los Angeles Lakers have gotten off to a much better start this season than many people anticipated. They hold a 17-6 record, which currently puts them in second place in the Western Conference, and it looks like their culture and overall constitution continue to get stronger with each passing week.
Even more impressively, they have done all this mostly without LeBron James. He missed their first 14 games of this season due to sciatica, and in his seven games back, he didn’t look like his usual self until Sunday against the Philadelphia 76ers.
But the jury is still out on whether the Lakers are legitimate championship contenders. Rich Paul, James’ longtime agent, said on the premier episode of “Game Over,” his new podcast, that they aren’t good enough to go all the way.
“I personally don’t think the Lakers are good enough to be contenders, not right now. … I don’t think they have enough to get to the Western Conference Finals. I don’t think they have enough to contend from that perspective right now.”
Paul’s reasoning is that L.A.’s roster is still a bit incomplete because of a lack of speed, athleticism and 3-point shooting, and that the team seldom creates pace or gets transition scores.
“Then you go into the playoffs — we seen last year — they ran into athleticism and length. They struggled. So when you look at it now — athleticism, length, shooting, speed. Can the Lakers play fast? I don’t think so. And style of play — that style of play is going to be very easy to guard when you get into the playoffs.”
Los Angeles is 22nd in pace and 26th in fast-break points per game, and even on Sunday, with James turning in 29 points on 12-of-17 field-goal shooting, seven rebounds and six assists while looking spry, it had a meager 11 fast-break points. Its players often head downcourt at a plodding, deliberate pace after defensive rebounds, and as Paul implied, it is a style of play that won’t get enough done in the postseason.
Last season, the Lakers finished with the third seed in the Western Conference and were thought to have a puncher’s chance at getting to the NBA Finals. But they fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games in the first round of the playoffs, as they had trouble getting defensive rebounds and struggled to put up a decent number of points. In that series, the Lakers averaged a very weak 100.4 points per game and shot 43.9% from the field, and they reached the century mark in scoring just twice.
While they have been playing fairly well, NBA basketball in the spring and early summer is very different compared to December.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Rich Paul on whether the Lakers are championship contenders
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
