Despite the comfortable win over the New Orleans Hornets and the celebration of Kobe Bryant’s 30000th point, Lakers fans know their team is still in trouble.
The NBA season is a quarter completed. However, the Lakers do not even have a record above .500. The Los Angeles team is currently sitting at 9-10.
With recent losses to the Pacers, Magic and Rockets, the arrival of Mike D’Antoni is no instant cure-all for this teams problems.
The primary problem the Lakers are facing is injuries, which obviously, is no fault of the coach. The injury bug started with Steve Nash, then Steve Blake and Pau Gasol.
Nash has been out since the second game of the season with a fractured fibula. Blake suffered an abdominal injury and will be out six to eight weeks as he needs surgery. Gasol is day-to-day with tendinitis, which he has had since the start of the season.
There are aksi many signs that this team has not established their chemistry. Pau Gasol has not been performing very well. He has complained about his lack of shots in the paint. Gasol has often found himself on the bench late in games with Antawn Jamison taking his place.
There have been too many games like the Rockets game, in which Bryant takes 31 shots, and nobody else on the team takes more than 11.
These factors make it hard to judge the Lakers. The team has had two offenses, three coaches and one of its marquee players Steve Nash miss 17 games. However, this is Hollywood, and after all the hype that came from forming a super team over the summer, fans are displeased with the results.
These things take time. Take for example the Miami Heat. When Dwayne Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined forces in 2010, they struggled as well.
Through their first 19 games, the Heat sported an only slightly better 11-8 record. They also did not have a significant injury at the time or have to deal with an in-season coaching change. This team ended up meshing in the second half of the season, and they went all the way to the NBA Finals.
Now I will be the first to say the Lakers will be very hard pressed to make it to the NBA Finals this year.
There is still no exact return date for Steve Nash. Once he returns, he will still have to build up his chemistry with the other players.
Furthermore, the team is not only having trouble on offense. They have been very poor on defense in several games early on, which is a bad sign since Nash is noted as a poor defender. His return will only potentially worsen the problem.
For these reasons, I think we just need to back off the Lakers, and let them play and figure themselves out. It is impossible to truly judge them at this point because they have been through so much already.