LeBron James & Lakers NBA Season Highlights: In-Season Tournament Action

When the first NBA Cup, they are champions

LeBron James, the MVP. Now 2-9 in their last 11 games. And Phoenix is coming here to beat the Lakers for the first time this season

The Lakers in trouble. The Lakers in serious trouble. Is this fixable, what we're seeing

Hell no. I'm tired of people living and dying with every single game we play

LeBron's doing his thing. AD's been playing great, and they're still losing

We're worried about old LeBron, the young guy, sticking up the joint. We're almost to the halfway point of the 2023-2024 NBA regular season

and the Los Angeles Lakers are sitting at just 19-20. If you would have told anybody that just a month ago

when the Lakers were winning the inaugural NBA Cup, it would have certainly taken them by surprise

After the Lakers defeated the New Orleans Pelicans in the semifinals of the NBA in-season tournament, they were 14-19 and since then have went just 5-11 in their last 16 games

Prior to last night when they were blown out by a struggling Suns team at home, they had won two in a row versus a Red Hot Clippers team and a Raptors team who has looked better than normal since acquiring Emmanuel Quickly and RJ Barrett

But it doesn't change the fact that while one team in LA is the hottest team in the NBA over the past month, another is arguably one of the coldest

At first, everyone kind of convinced themselves the Lakers were just having an in-season tournament hangover, similar to the Indiana Pacers, which made sense at the time

As they went 2-6 in their 8 games following the in-season tournament

In that same six-game span, the Pacers would also go 2-6. So it really did just seem like an in-season tournament hangover

Players were tired. They had never competed like this before this early in the season

Both teams would get back on track. And while that proved to be true for the Indiana Pacers

who would proceed to then go 9-1 following that 2-6 stretch, but the Lakers wouldn't really recover going 3-5 in their next eight games

Like I said earlier, they did beat a Clippers team who has been the hottest team in the NBA over the past month

However, if you want to split hairs, Kawhi Leonard was on a minutes restriction due to a back-to-back

and he didn't play much of clutch time. And when it comes to the Raptors' win, think what you want about the fouling down the stretch

It was super controversial, but I think either way, the Raptors were the better team in that game

and the Lakers snuck out a win. Regardless, I feel like we're getting to that point in the NBA season

where the Lakers are quickly becoming desperate. This was a team that completely retooled itself at the trade deadline last year

and became one of the hottest teams in the NBA in March and April heading into the playoffs

which they would end up riding that momentum all the way to the Western Conference Finals as the 7th seed

The story of the Lakers this year has been one of a poor offense

and to start a pretty good defense that has really lapsed over this 14-15 game rough stretch

As they now rank 12th in the NBA in defensive rating, 23rd in offense, and 20th in net rating

which somehow actually puts them behind last year's pace pre-trade deadline as they were 19th in offense 12th in defense and 16th in net Now obviously we talking about 39 games not a full NBA season The question has to be asked what is different about this Los Angeles Lakers team

versus that team post-trade deadline last year who was one of the best teams in the NBA

When it comes to their two superstars, LeBron James and Anthony Davis, nothing has really changed compared to last year

Sure, LeBron is down a tiny bit in scoring and maybe some other counting stats

but both players are still playing on an all-NBA level, which is pretty remarkable to say about a 39-year-old

It seems that everybody else on this roster is having a down season

compared to that second half of last year. Part of this could just be that the Lakers got hot

at the right time last year and that players were playing almost elevated

compared to what they actually were, which we'll dive deeper into later in this video

However, I don't really think we could have expected this at the same time. For example, Exhibit A to me is Austin Reeves

I'm not saying he's had an awful season, But last season, according to Dunksand3s.com, he had a true shooting percentage of 70.1%

which is absolutely incredible for a guard. And according to Dunksand3s.com as well, it's in the 97th percentile across the entire NBA

which includes big men who are getting a majority of high percentage shots near the rim

Austin has seen his three-point attempts go up 1.2 a game this season

and his percentage completely drop off a cliff. He was shooting 39.8% from three, which is borderline elite

And it's now shooting below league average at 34.3%, which according to basketballreference.com

league average this season is 36.5. But even from inside the arc, his shots aren't falling either

Last season, he shot 63% from two. This season, he's shooting 58%

And then although not known as a defender, he's an offensive player on the defensive end

He has the worst defensive rating on the team by anybody that plays significant minutes

According to dunksandthrees.com, this may be too advanced of a metric for most fans

but Austin Reeves' estimated plus minus on defense is minus 3.2, which ranks in the first percentile

And for reference, he was in the 62nd percentile last year with a plus 0.00 defensive EPM

Again, not to go into it too much, but EPM is an advanced metric that's highly respected

in the ytics basketball world. And there could be other reasons for that number

but I thought it was too interesting and too much of a discrepancy to not include in this video

But I think the biggest thing with Austin Reeves, he could obviously get hot and turn this whole

season around. However, I think the most disappointing thing so far is how hyped he

was by the national media in the summer and more specifically during Team USA. I remember guys like

Bill Simmons talking about how Austin Reeves was making almost a mini superstar leap. Maybe

superstar is too strong of a word, but the way he was being talked about was as if he was the third

a borderline star piece alongside Anthony Davis and LeBron. The Lakers desperately need 2022-2023

Austin Reeves to come back at some point this season. Torian Prince also looked like a very

smart signing. I'm a Wolves fan. He played for the Wolves last year. I like Torian Prince

Lakers fans were excited to get him this offseason, but he also hasn't been very good for them

He's actually been able to shoot pretty well from three this year on a good amount of attempts per

but his defense has also been very poor He actually second on the team in the lowest defensive rating for guys that play significant minutes just right above Austin Reeves Then you have a guy like Cam Reddish

who has actually been good on the defensive end of this season, but is borderline unplayable on the offensive end

When it comes to a guy like D'Angelo Russell, I actually think he's having a pretty good season

His efficiency is just a tad down from post-trade deadline D'Angelo Russell last season

but overall from last season to this season, he's very much the same player

And I think he's somebody that the Lakers really need to initiate offense, especially

when LeBron isn't on the court. Jared Vanderbilt's a guy that I think has been incredibly disappointing for the Lakers

this year. This was about a year, maybe two years ago, considered one of the best defenders in the

NBA by advanced metrics, especially on the perimeter. His defense hasn't necessarily been as good as in a year or two ago

However, his offense is literally so bad. I don't really even know how to describe it

We all know offense has never been Vando's thing, but this is a whole new low

He's only played in 16 games this year, so I will say it is a small sample size

However, the dude is shooting 36% from the field on just three field goal attempts per game

averaging two and a half points per game, whereas he was averaging 7.2 post-trade deadline last year

I feel for Darvin Ham on this one because when you put him out on the court

especially with Anthony Davis on the court, you may be looking to be dominant on defense

but you're giving up so much on the offensive end and you're already a poor offensive team

It just feels like with this Lakers team, they are full of role players that are just

really good at one thing and awful at the other, which almost creates this like schizophrenic or

bipolar identity with different units on the court. For example, Cam Reddish and Jared Vanderbilt

defensive players, horrendous, unplayable on the offensive end. D'Angelo Russell and Austin Reeves

above average offensive players, not unplayable on the defensive end, but they're not good

defenders. And another player I really want to mention was Rui Hachimura. This was a guy who had

an incredible playoffs. The Lakers made a really nice move trading for him in January of last season

giving up Kendrick Nunn and just three second round picks. And for the most part, I don't really

have any gripes for Rui. I think he's a good role player on a team like the Lakers. I know he's out

with a calf injury right now, but hopefully he can get back on the court soon. And then you have some

other guys on this roster that I'm just not really sure what to do with. And Christian Wood, Max

Christie, Jackson Hayes, even Jalen Hood-Shifino, their first round pick this season, who probably

should be playing in the G League right now. We all know that the NBA season can change in two

weeks and maybe in three we're talking about how the Lakers have been the hottest team in January

but as of now it looks like they're going to be active again at the trade deadline

Darvin Ham has been on the hot seat for the past couple weeks and I'm not really going to speak too

much on that just because I have no idea. I'm assuming he's going to be fired if things don't

turnaround in the next two weeks but at the same time this was a guy that everyone was praising when

the lakers made the western conference finals last season when it comes to the trade deadline i really

don't think the lakers should trade for zach levine or even dejounte murray i know that won't be the

popular sentiment most people are begging for change but i just don't see either of these guys

being worth what you're gonna have to trade for them you're probably due for some positive

regression in the second half of the season especially from a guy like austin reeves and maybe you can make a minor deal or find someone on the buyout market that can come in off the bench and provide a spark especially on offense And we have proof this team can get hot at the right time and make a run

I do think they're somewhat missing Dennis Schroeder from last season, someone to come in off the bench

as a backup point guard and run the offense when things get stagnant. But at the end of the day

what would you even offer for Zach Levine? I know they have some picks that they can offer

but do you really want to mortgage your future for a guy like Levine? I guess I'm just not

persuaded he would make the kind of difference people seem to claim he would. Plus, for all we

know, Bronny continues to ascend through the draft boards and all of a sudden LeBron declines his

player option this offseason and goes wherever Bronny gets drafted. I know it's not the sexy

move to make, but I really think the Lakers just need to stand pat at the trade deadline. At the

very most, like I said earlier, make a small move. The only way I see Deshante Murray potentially

being worth it is if you get rid of D'Lo. The Hawks aren't taking D'Lo back. There's no way

Plus, the market seems to have no idea what DeJounte is worth. I've seen people throwing

out crazy amounts of firsts. Then I've seen others say the Hawks aren't getting more than

50% of what they paid for him. I think the scariest thing for the Lakers, and honestly

for the Warriors and the Suns too, is that right now you have four teams fighting for three play-in

spots. Not playoff spots, play-in spots. And those four teams are the three I just mentioned

and the Houston Rockets. Plus the Utah Jazz are 11-4 in their last 15 games

and are 18-20. I'm not buying it yet, but it's something to monitor. Let's just say the Lakers are damn lucky

that John Morant just randomly had this shoulder injury nobody knew about and is out for the season

because I was willing to bet on the Grizzlies making the playoffs. And honestly, the answer may just lie

in letting some of these guys like Max Christie and Christian Wood get more run

I know a lot of people have been upset with Darvin Ham with all these different starting lineup rotations

and everything happening from night to night, but this team is so bizarre right now

that I really don't blame him for it that much. Hopefully they can find some type of continuity

and it wouldn't surprise me if they were to get back in their groove rattling off four or five in a row here

January is an essential month for them. They only leave California three times

and they don't play it back to back until the end of the month. In order to consider this a successful month

I would say they probably need to be five games above 500 by the end of the month

There's only 10 games left in January and they're two and three to start the month, which means they're gonna have to finish

eight and two or seven and three. The Western Conference is brutal this season

And while I'm not particularly a Lakers fan, I really do appreciate LeBron James as we all do

to be doing this at 39 years old and to have the potential to miss the playoffs

would be a damn shame. So for that sole reason, I'm hoping the Lakers figure it out

If you enjoyed this video, you'll enjoy the video I just made on the Trey Young problem explained

You can watch that right here. If you enjoy timely NBA content, you're in the right place

I try to upload multiple times a week. I also want to say thank you so much for the support over the past couple of videos

The channel has been growing exponentially, and it just motivates me to continually make better and better videos for you guys

I'm just a fan of the game of basketball like all of you. So as always, if you disagree with something, put it in the comments

I'd love to respond to you. Tell me why I'm wrong. I also will admit when I do think I'm wrong or if I mess something up

Thanks for watching and as always, we'll see you on the hard