Two championship caliber teams have started the season 0-2. While it’s too early to pronounce impending doom for the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks, there may be a lesson to be learned from their combined 0-4 start.
The Lakers have lost two games to both the Chicago Bulls and the Sacramento Kings. The Lakers have tried to infuse youth into their roster by starting Devin Ebanks and Josh McRoberts but the core of their offense still revolves around Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Metta World Peace. Andrew Bynum will return to the lineup in two more games but he has never proven himself as the kind of player that will produce consistently on offense.
Having Bynum back will help tremendously though because he is a strong defensive presence when he is in the game. His ability to rebound and alter shots will help the Lakers pull out some of these low-scoring games but this team will be strapped for offense all season unless they can acquire more talent.
The two teams that beat the Lakers are youthful squads that depend on their young stars for the bulk of their offense. The Bulls are led by 23-year-old MVP Derrick Rose who hit the game winning shot against the Lakers. The Kings are led by Tyreke Evans even though it was Marcus Thornton who carried the Kings offensively and drilled the dagger that sunk the Lakers in that game.
Lamar Odom could have been very useful during this stretch but unfortunately they traded the disgruntled forward to the Mavericks for next to nothing. Odom is a multi-faceted player who can distribute like a point guard, score and rebound. He is also a long-armed defender that can guard both perimeter and post players.
Odom hasn’t been much help to the Mavericks who have lost both of their games by over ten points apiece.
Don’t get me wrong, Odom is a great pickup for Dallas because of his versatility but he’s not enough to replace all of the players they lost over the offseason. Tyson Chandler, DeShawn Stevenson, Jose Barea, Peja Stojakovic, and Caron Butler are all missing from last year’s championship team.
Dallas has an old roster so depth will be a key for them all season. It doesn’t help that they let two young players go in Chandler and Barea who were so pivotal during the Finals. They brought in Delonte West and Vince Carter to help with depth but Carter has not been an impact player in years although West does have the ability to give this team some great play off the bench once he gets acclimated to the team’s system.
Similar to the Lakers, the Mavericks get the bulk of their offense from its oldest players. Jason Terry, Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki lead the team in scoring but these guys will struggle to play at a high level all season. This compact season is really going to wear on those guys, especially with more back-to-back games on the schedule than they would usually have to play.
But as I said before it has only been two games. It’s too early to predict doom for these two veteran teams but it does bear watching throughout the course of this season. Will the Mavericks and Lakers’ scoring deficiencies be a temporary or season long problem? Both teams hope it’s the former and not the latter but with four losses to much younger squads it seems that youth will be served.
Roosevelt Hall is an NBA Blogger for Pick And Fade and also writes for Shatter The Backboard. He can be contacted at RHall@shatterthebackboard.com. Follow him on Twitter @rhall_tpfb.
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