LA LAKERS

After last night's performance there's understandably clamor about D'Angelo. I'd like to go over what is considered weaknesses so far and see what kind of player he's shaping up to be or can be and whether he's any good for the Lakers moving forward.

Sloppy Turnovers: That's a glaring problem, but one I believe is already in the process of being resolved. His sloppy turnovers mostly come from him trying the force the ball through traffic or making lazy passes which he used to do a lot of. Nowadays I don't see that as much. A lot of D'angelo's playmaking is now coming from kicking it out to the open shooter (which is a lot harder to intercept) and throwing it to bigs when the defense is focused on the perimeter. His playmaking is definitely improving and the turnover problem should become less pronounced as the season goes on.

He's Slow: This is a big concern since D'angelo's game takes a big hit if he can't get into the paint. However, it's becoming evident that his knee issue was what was keeping him from driving earlier this season. Despite that his shooting prowess still gave him much improved numbers from last year. Now that his knee issue is resolved, we should see him driving much more. For now his drives look awkward, but he's still getting used to it. As for him being slow even when he drives into the paint, I think D'angelo's more athletic than he's showing right now. If you can, I want you to look at what I think was his last play during the Clippers game. He breezed right through the defense and tried to end someone's career with a nasty dunk. He jumped a little early and came short, but the speed from the play was anything but slow.

Defensive Liability: I'm sure we've all seen guards blow right past D'Angelo, and honestly I'm not sure if he's ever going to be an elite defender. But we don't need that. All we need is for him to be competent. I'm seeing more instances where D'Angelo uses his length to hassle a player trying to get their shot off and forces them to miss without fouling. If D'Angelo works religiously on simply being able to keep up with driving players and uses his size to disrupt their shots without fouling, that's fine with me. He'd already be more effective than guards like Irving and Curry.

D'angelo has many issues, but they're being resolved as we speak. Realistically, I think at his prime D'angelo will be a 24 point 7 assist guy which is already stellar. Combine that with a versatile forward in Randle, a (hopefully) premier offensive and defensive threat in Ingram, a skilled center like Zubac, and you have yourself a championship team.