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When the Los Angeles Lakers traded for Steve Nash and Dwight Howard this summer, it seemed clear that the Western Conference had a new team to beat. It didn’t appear as though anyone in the west could challenge them.
The idea of one of the greatest point guards of all time, the ageing but still highly effective Nash, and Howard, the hands-down best big man of his generation, joining forces with Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol was terrifying for fans of the rest of the league, and brought to mind LeBron James and Chris Bosh teaming up with Dwyane Wade in Miami.
How was anybody going to beat these guys?
However, a stunning 0-3 start tipped the narrative in the other direction. It became “What is happening to the Lakers? Can all this talent work together? Is Mike Brown’s new offense to blame? How long until Phil Jackson is back on the bench?”
It isn’t so shocking, actually. It’s easy to forget this now that the Heat are defending champions and LeBron is dominating everyone in his way, but it wasn’t always smooth sailing for the big three in South Beach, either.
Miami went 9-8 in the first 17 games of the 2010-11 season. The pairing of LeBron and Wade, two of the deadliest wing scorers of the decade, was awkward, and Bosh seemed to be something of a third wheel.
There was constant speculation about how long Erik Spoelstra would last before Pat Riley stepped in himself to coach the team. But they figured it out, reaching the Finals that year.
They became even more unstoppable the following year, especially after they embraced an unorthodox, positionless offense that utilised LeBron’s strengths to a degree never before achieved in his career.
And now, they’re a bona fide juggernaut.
The Lakers are experiencing the same growing pains. Howard is coming off back surgery, and may or may not be fully healthy. Nash will be out at least another week with a leg injury.
Kobe is being forced to share the ball more than he has in years, after having total control of the Laker offense ever since the departure of Shaquille O’Neal.
Mike Brown and new assistant coach Eddie Jordan are implementing the ball-movement-heavy Princeton offense, a hard left turn from any system any of the primary Lakers scorers have played in before.
Putting it together was always going to be a process.
Sunday’s blowout 108-79 win over the Pistons provided a glimpse of this team’s devastating potential. A seemingly more mobile Howard reminded us why he’s a three-time Defensive Player of the Year.
The open nature of the offense has allowed Bryant to become more of a catch-and-shoot player than a primary playmaker, and has resulted in the most efficient season he’s ever had. He’s shooting 59.7 percent from the field, including 52.9 percent from three-point range.
The presence of Howard in the low post and Gasol in the high post has forced defences to abandon him, and he’s feasted on the greater amount of uncontested shots he’s getting.
Bench play is still a major concern for the Lakers. With Nash temporarily sidelined, Steve Blake, a serviceable-at-best backup, has been forced to step in as the starting point guard. A past-his-prime Antawn Jamison and inexperienced Darius Morris are being counted on to provide the bulk of the second-unit offense.
Fourth-year big man Jordan Hill is a reliable rebounder and defender, but like Howard, he’s battling a bad back. Nash’s return should solve some of these rotation issues, but outside of the superstars, the Lakers aren’t particularly deep.
My prediction: The Lakers will be just fine. It may take until January or February for them to start playing at their full potential, but provided Nash and Howard aren’t further stymied by injuries, their eventual figuring out how to play together feels inevitable.
And once they do, they’ll be pretty hard to stop.
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