Heading into this season, the general consensus was that D’Angelo Russell was going to break out while the rest of the Lakers struggled. We’re now a dozen games into the season and somehow, that’s flipped — though with a pretty obvious caveat. Darius joined me on “Locked on Lakers” to explain.
The Lakers have already won seven games this season and, compared to last year (when the seventh win didn’t come until January), the perception around this team is one of essentially pure optimism. Conversely, Russell, who leads the Lakers in several major categories, somehow hasn’t lived up to some fans’ expectations. So, Darius and I tried to figure out what’s at play there.
Then, the conversation expanded to the perceptions of the Lakers’ entire young core. No one the Lakers are trying to build around moving forward fits an easily-defined player-type, which forces fans to do their homework a bit more than in year’s past. Basically, the Lakers are a hipster team the blogiverse tends to enjoy more than a casual fan might. Listen to the show and this will make sense. I promise.
Finally, we spoke about the daunting stretch of games the Lakers are looking at. The team’s play to this point has people talking about the playoffs, but this next stretch might serve as a reality check. While Darius and I weren’t all that interested in predicting whether the Lakers might make the playoffs (though we did talk about what we hope to see in the next 12 games), we were interested in where the sudden flip of expectations might’ve come from.
You can listen to the show below, and hopefully subscribe to us on iTunes, which you can do, here.
david__h says
like two buddies hanging out talking about the lakers. very enjoyable. this season I think is just as much about coach Walton and his staff as it is the development and rise of the lakers.
tonite the start of the grueling 12 game stretch you and others have been talking about.
keeping the game close will suffice it for me.
Go lakers