Michael Lucky wrote:for all the talk about them being bad on D, I find it ironic that the Lakers are now ranked 6th or 7th in defensive efficiency depending on the source, and have gotten better on that end since D'Antoni has arrived. Maybe our expectations of what is good D is really too high. Besides I see every team give a ton of easy buckets, and yeah that even includes the bulls, it's just they play at a much slower pace that it doesn't happen as often or we simply don't notice it as much.
I wouldn't put too much stock into our offensive/defensive ratings this early in the seasons. There are a couple of factors that slant those ratings in our favor:
1) Simply put, we've had a very easy schedule with 11 home games and 5 road games. That helps our ratings both ways since teams tend to play much better at home than on the road.
2) The average offensive ranking of the teams we've played is 14th out of 30, so mostly average offensive teams. We've played 5 teams that have had a top 10 ranked offense, and against 3 of those teams our defense was pretty good (Clippers - 7th, Spurs - 5th, Nets - 6th). Against the other two teams (Grizzles - 4th, Nuggets - 9th) our defense looked pretty awful. So while we're ranked 7th currently I think we've played slightly above average defense overall given the competition.
3) The average defensive rating of the teams we've played is 17th out of 30, so mostly below average defensive teams. Again, we've played 5 teams that had a top 10 ranked defense. Against two of those teams our offense looked good (Clippers - 10th, Nets - 8th). Against the other 3 teams we struggled (Spurs - 5th, Grizz - 2nd, Pacers - 1st). Given that we're ranked 8th that's not too impressive, especially since 4 out of those 5 games were at Staples (and in general we've had a really home heavy schedule).
Like I said earlier, the potential is there to be great on both ends. Having Howard alone gives us the potential to be a top 3 defensive team in the league if our guards start playing smarter and with more enthusiasm. Give Hill and Ebanks more burn off the bench and it'll only help.
Offense requires a bit more time to develop chemistry so I'm more forgiving there. When it's all said and done I think we'll be pretty nasty. It's hard for me to imagine us not having a top 5 ranked offense by seasons end given that we stay relatively healthy, and to be quite honest we should have the #1 offense if Nash plays the rest of the way.
"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere." - Carl Sagan