Lakers Injuries, Expectations Missing Bigger Point of LA’s Roster Flaws

The Los Angeles Lakers are flailing and failing out in public. To make matters worse, Dwight Howard is out with a torn labrum and Pau Gasol is out with a concussion (via ESPN.com). This would seem to be a debacle of epic proportions. 

But, imagine if I had told you before the season that Dwight Howard's back would never be healthy in 2012-13. What would your expectations for the Lakers have been then? 

This is lost in so much of the howling over a disappointing Lakers season. People are so fixated on what the expectations were that it's drowned-out commentary on what the expectations should have been. If Dwight Howard's back wasn't right, the Lakers were always dead in the water.

Last season, the Lakers had a plus-1.4 margin of victory, which is even lower than their current plus-2.1 pace. This essentially means that Los Angeles got lucky with its winning percentage last year but has been unlucky so far this season. It also means that expectations should have been tempered a bit below what they were.

Hobbled by a rehabbing spine, Dwight Howard has been worse than last year's Andrew Bynum, the guy who played on the plus-1.4 point differential team. This was a wholly predictable outcome, because spinal surgery is no minor undertaking. For whatever reason, my sense is that people would have been more braced for a drop in production had Dwight been returning from a torn ACL.

Howard is still producing offensively, albeit at a worse clip than in his past. His PER and win share average are at their worst levels in seven seasons.

Though diminished offensively, you can really see his injury on the defensive end. Howard, before he tore his labrum, just didn't consistently have his old lateral mobility. He also was stilted and sluggish in his defensive movements. 

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