During last summer, Los Angeles Lakers made the transfer that sent Montrezl Harrell, Kyle Kuzma, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Russell Westbrookwith the intention of forming a luxury trio together with LeBron Jamesand Anthony Davis.
In addition to this, they decided not to renew the contract to Alex CarusoWesley Matthews, Andre Drummond, y Markieff Morris.
In free agency they signed Carmelo Anthony, Dwight HowardTrevor Ariza, Malik Monk, Kendick Nunn, Kent Bazemore, and then DeAndre Jordan.
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Fifty-eight games after the start of the NBA season, the Lakers occupy ninth place in the Western Conference, with a losing record of 27 wins and 31 losses, with which they would fight for their place in the playoffs through play in.
Many problems
The situation for the Los Angeles team is embarrassing for the 17-time NBA champion team, since not only the Lakers have a squad of at least 5 future members of the Hall of Fame in LeBron, Davis, Westbrook, Carmelo and Howard, but they are also losing games that, in theory, they should win with the talent they have on the roster.
However, the offense is not the problem for these Lakers, it is the defense that has simply not existed during the first half of the campaign.
The Lakers have practically 6 players averaging over 10 points, starting with LeBron at 29.1, Davis at 23.1, Westbrook at 18.3, Carmelo at 13.4, Monk at 13, and Talen Horton-Tucker at 9.5, which shows that offensively, the Lakers are theoretically covered.
But looking at the hard statistical data, the reality is that those led by Frank Vogelwho has a reputation for being a defensive-minded coach, are allowing more points than they are scoring.
Currently, the Lakers are the fifth worst defense in the league, allowing 112.4 points to their opponents per game, while they are producing 110.9, which by the way, is the 10th best offense in the competition.
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The truth is that you cannot win games consistently, when they are scoring you more points than your own team is producing, and the Lakers have work to do if they intend to qualify directly for the postseason, for which they need to be sixth in the Western Conference, last position to fully access the playoffs.
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