Are There Enough Shots to Go Around for LA Lakers This Season?

One ball might not be enough for the Los Angeles Lakers in 2014-15.

In assembling the roster for next season, the Lakers took a twofold approach by acquiring and retaining ready-to-contribute talent that wouldn't cost them long-term flexibility. The end result is what you would expect: weird.

Names like Kobe Bryant, Jeremy Lin, Carlos Boozer, Nick Young and Julius Randle now headline a roster that figures to be terrible defensively, despite head coach Byron Scott insisting otherwise. And with poor defense typically comes an excess of offensive mouths to feed—the Lakers are not an exception. 

They might be the disturbing rule. 

 

Overlapping Agendas



Most of the Lakers' players follow score-first credos. At some point a lineup of Lin, Bryant, Boozer, Young and Randle will be fielded, and mayhem could ensue.

There is not a pass-first player on the roster aside from Steve Nash, who, at 40, is no longer capable of quarterbacking offenses on his own. The dream of him playing like he did with the Phoenix Suns is dead. He has appeared in just 65 games over the last two seasons. He'll never be that player again.

One player would never be enough anyway. 

Problems abound on the perimeter, where the Lakers are packed with ball-dominant scorers who aren't accustomed to playing off the rock.

Less than one-third of Bryant's made baskets came off assists in 2012-13, and he converted only 35.8 percent of his catch-and-shoot attempts that year, according to Synergy Sports (subscription required). 

Lin isn't much better. Almost 53 percent of his made baskets were unassisted in 2013-14, which is pretty amazing considering that he played more than 1,300 minutes alongside the rock-hoarding James Harden. 

Spot-up shooting remained an area in which he continued to struggle as well...

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