Starting the 2015-16 season with no wins and three losses, the writing is already on the wall. If this team doesn’t plug the defensive sieves, they’ll be heading toward another historically bad record.
The problem isn’t only a shortage of two-way players, or even a lack of young talent. Instead, it’s a combination of factors and it starts at the top, with a Lakers head coach who is already pointing fingers rather than offering solutions.
“We sucked, simple as that,” Byron Scott offered per Lakers.com video, after his team was steamrolled by the Sacramento Kings Friday night. “Transition defense was terrible, the guys didn’t get back, lack of communication. I’ve never seen 80 points in the paint.”
As Forum Blue and Gold’s Darius Soriano noted:
As the old saying goes, a team is often the reflection of their coach. Do not mistake this to mean I am calling Byron Scott soft. What I am saying, though, is that the characteristics he rails against in his post game pressers are, at least somewhat, a product of his own coaching. How can they not be?
Point Guard
One of the biggest disappointments so far has been Scott’s over-shuffling of the point guard platoon. This year’s No. 2 draft pick, D’Angelo Russell, was chosen for his potential as the Lakers' floor general of the future. So far, however, he has been used inconsistently at both guard positions and with too few minutes overall.
In the Lakers’ season opener, Russell was primarily used off-ball—a curious debut indeed. Scott switched the 19-year-old back to the point against the Kings but still subbed...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
