The Lakers clearly were one of the trading deadline winners, acquiring point guard Ramon Sessions from the Cavaliers for Luke Walton and Jason Kapono. The team also got more frontcourt depth, trading the aging Derek Fisher to the Rockets for Jordan Hill. Sessions in particular was a great acquisition, as he gives the Lakers a true scoring threat at point guard that can attack the rim, instead of just spot-up shooting like Fisher.
The team has four legitimate play-makers on their roster, with future Hall of Fame shooting guard Kobe Bryant leading the way. Pau Gasol has a very well-rounded game, and is an adept passer for a big man. Andrew Bynum is a physical force on both ends of the court, and has a solid array of low-post moves that make him a matchup nightmare for any center not named Dwight Howard. Sessions, as mentioned above, is a solid creator off the dribble, and is also a solid passer.
If you were to just look at their starting five, then this team would seem to be a lock for a Western Conference Finals appearance. The team still has issues, as they are getting almost no scoring from the rest of their rotation:
- Metta World Peace is still a solid defensive small forward, but has seen his shooting numbers plummet over the past two seasons, and is used as little more than a spot-up shooter on the wing.
- Steve Blake is a scrappy player on defense, but his physical limitations make him almost purely a spot-up three point shooter.
- Matt Barnes is solid defensively, a good rebounder and fairly effective on the fast break, but can't create shots for himself or others, and is largely relegated to spot-up shooting.
- Josh McRoberts is a high-effort player with a well-rounded game, but he doesn't truly do any one thing great (aside from passing for a big) at an NBA level.
- Troy Murphy used to be one of the better shooting/rebounding power forwards in the league, but injuries have caused him to lose some of his athleticism, and his shot has also faltered in recent years.
- Andrew Goudelock is probably the closest thing that the Lakers have to a scorer off the bench, but he's still a rookie, and struggles defensively, two things that have caused him to see only limited minutes this season.
While the Lakers have enough talent on their roster to at least reach the second round of the Western Conference Playoffs, a team that is so heavily dependent on their starting lineup will struggle against the better NBA teams. For instance, the Lakers are 21-13 against teams with a .500+ record, but are just 8-9 on the road against those teams. In those games, the Lakers bench has averaged just 18.1 points per game.
At this point in the season, there's little more general manager Mitch Kupchak can do to improve his bench production, so the Lakers will have to go with what they have. If the team wants surround Kobe with a true contender, they'll need to address their bench scoring in the offseason. In the meantime, we'll just have to see if there is enough talent in the rotation to make up for their lack of bench production, though its hard to ever bet against Kobe Bryant.
The Lakers will wear themselves out by playoff time. They will show up of course but we are at a time when Kobe is not enough by himself and the bench cant produce enough to get through the 1st or if they are lucky the second round. Kobe will waste one more year in search of number 6. It was a good rehearsal for the new coach.
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