With the Lakers winning the vast majority of their games, things have looked good in LA.
The offense, in particular, has been excellent. That’s not much of a surprise when you consider the Lakers employ Luka Dončić, who is averaging a league-leading 34.6 points per game. They also have Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura, who are off to career starts. And they’re adding LeBron James to the mix now, too.
Still, improvement can always be made.
Head coach JJ Redick raved about his team’s offense after practice
on Thursday, but did acknowledge that turnovers have been a problem.
“We’re No. 1 or No. 2 in shot quality, No. 1 in points per shot, No. 2 in field goal percentage, but we’re last in turnover percentage,” Redick said. “It’s the difference between having a, whatever we are, 12th offense and a top-four offense if we’re just league-average in turnovers. I think that’s the biggest clean up for us offensively. We’re top 10 in every single action in terms of efficiency, whether it’s on-ball, off-ball, [dribble handoffs], pick and rolls, isos. It doesn’t matter. We’re top 10 in every action. We’re just literally turning the ball over too much.”
Technically, LA has the second-highest turnover percentage in the NBA at 16.7%. However, that is only 0.1% better than the last-place Warriors, so Redick’s point regarding the Lakers having too many turnovers still stands.
Los Angeles has an offensive rating of 116.5, ranking 11th in the NBA. Cleaning up turnovers would be enough to make the offense elite across the board. However, that’s easier said than done.
The Lakers want to push the pass and quickly get into their offense. Working at a faster pace can naturally lead to rushing, which can cause errors.
The players with the most turnovers are, naturally, the team’s primary ballhandlers. Luka is averaging 4.1 turnovers per game and Reaves commits 3.4 per contest. Both are also leading the team in assists, so it’s a constant balance between being aggressive without being reckless.
Now that LeBron is back, that should also help things. He had 12 assists and just one turnover in his season debut against the Jazz. That won’t be his usual production, but in case you haven’t heard it before, he’s pretty good.
The good thing is Redick is aware and open about this problem. Considering how focused he is on always getting better, you can bet he’ll make this a point of emphasis moving forward.
Last season, the Lakers had a 14.2% turnover rate, which put them in the middle of the pack in the NBA. So, there should be optimism that they’ll clean things up and be closer to the median than the bottom as the year progresses.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
