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Having acquired LeBron James on Day 1 of free agency, Laker Nation instantly zoomed the lights in on the franchise's latest GOAT-caliber player.
Understandably, a lot has been made of the acquisitions they've made ever since, what with Rajon Rondo, Lance Stephenson, JaVale McGee and Michael Beasley signing as free agents with the Lakers following the LeBron move.
Which means that the Lakers' young core is being slept on, as of now. Without going into how the likes of Mo Wagner and Mykhailiuk will fare as rookies, they still have four greatly talented young players who would be great additions to most other teams.
The veterans on the Lakers' squad are known quantities by this point. There is not much they can improve on right now, which means that Luke Walton will entrust them with mainly those responsibilities that they've shouldered already with other franchises.
This puts the onus on the Lakers' youngsters to adapt to the team's needs, both present and future. This article is an attempt to describe their major areas for improvement over the course of the next season:
#1 Lonzo Ball - Free throw percentage
With all due respect to Brandon Ingram, his leap as a scorer in his second professional season and his ability to play as a point forward, he is not the best young player the Lakers have - Lonzo is, at least right now.
What puts Ball apart from nearly every other player on the planet is that he is up there as a contestant for being the most intelligent player on a roster that also contains LeBron James and Rajon Rondo. As a rookie, Lonzo averaged 10 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists while playing excellent perimeter defense on up to three positions during one game.
His obvious weakness is his shooting form, which is one of the weirdest I've seen any NBA player use. But he can still shoot the 3-pointer, as he proved during a stretch in his rookie season when he shot the highest 3-point percentage in the league.
What he can't do right now, however, is finish in and around the paint, or hit free throws with any reliability.
The worst of Lonzo's stats is his free throw percentage, which sits at a dastardly below-50 percentage of 45.1%. No professional should ever be shooting that low of a percentage, and it is this weakness of his that stands out the most to him.
Hopefully, as he becomes older, grows into his full frame and becomes a more finished physical specimen, he will also be able to initiate contact and use it to his advantage at the charity stripe, because it looks like the single most unlikely thing he could do on a basketball court today.
#2 Brandon Ingram: Spot-up shooting
The Lakers drafted a real diamond in the rough in Brandon Ingram 2 seasons back, picking him with the No.2 overall pick. His play during his rookie year did nothing to dispel that notion, but the considerable strides he made in just his second professional season were clear signs of a sharpening and the seasoning required of a raw prospect like him.
Ingram projects as an able wing player already, but to reach All-Star contention in the bloodbath that is the Western Conference, he needs to be able to punish opponents from the perimeter much more.
He shot nearly 40% on limited attempts from 3-point range last season, but with three other playmakers on the squad, expect his spot-up attempts to go up drastically from where they were last season.
LeBron-led teams have always had gunners ready to go from range, but this version of the Lakers has only one player filling that specific role in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Ingram averaged better on open looks than on closed looks, as well as having a better average on spot-up shots than pull-up shots - pointers to a still-unharnessed ability to torch teams from the perimeter.
It's high time now, however, for him to make good on a much bigger volume of 3-pointers.
#3 Kyle Kuzma: Defense
Putting together one of the most remarkable rookie seasons in history for a late first-round pick last season, Kyle Kuzma is, in many people's eyes, the Lakers' best young player - although I would disagree on that take. Straight off the bat, he's showcased a sweet scoring touch, and coming off the bench last season he had one of the greenest lights in the league to go on a shooting spree.
That will change, however, as Kuzma will attempt to adjust to a LeBron-centered offense for the Lakers this season. He will be asked to expend more energy off the ball in offense, and might just be needed to play shooting guard at times.
Kuzma's rookie season was quite bad defensively, though it was nothing unusual by rookie standards.
An offseason to train alongside other NBA players may just be what he needs to pull his socks up, but there were times last season when he was simply abused on defense by point guards looking to set cutters up, as he went to sleep far too easily.
The biggest spotlight in basketball is not going to make things easy for him, but a reduced role and increased focus on defense may just bring a side of Kuzma out that we haven't seen yet.
#4 Josh Hart - Scoring moves
Based on what we saw of the Vilanova graduate last season and over the course of the 2018 Summer League, Josh Hart is already a pretty good player to have coming off the bench for any team.
For one, he is a rabid competitor and that drives him to play some of the most stifling defense I've seen a rookie play. He also flashed the ability to be an adequate playmaker when given the chance, though it is unclear how often he'll be used in that role given the presence of Rajon Rondo and LeBron James in addition to Lonzo Ball on the same team.
In my opinion, his role will be a lot more off the ball this season - he will be one of the first players coming off the bench for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in all likelihood. This means an increased role as a spot-up shooter as for Brandon Ingram, but not all scoring even alongside LeBron is done as just a shooter.
Hart is a pretty good driver of the ball, but he needs to add more variety to his scoring game in order to top out at his projected ceiling as a valuable two-way guard.
Are there any other areas these youngsters should improve? Sound off your opinions in the comments section below!
Guess the Lakers players!
