NBA Power Rankings: The Grizzlies are in trouble

23. Los Angeles Lakers

Two things about this Lakers season are particularly surprising. For the year, they have the NBA’s sixth best defense, per nba.com/stats, and Julius Randle is the only player with a positive net rating as of Monday. The former gives them something build off of moving forward, while Randle’s strong play seems to indicate that whoever he ends up with next (as Randle is likely to end up on another team when the Lakers look to clear out max cap space) is going to get a useful player

The Lakers also got a break last week, as they were off from Wednesday on. For a young team  that is doing some things well, but it struggling in others, a break was probably needed.

“It was nice to be able to have a little break in the middle of the season, and hopefully we’ll get back to doing what we were doing well before,” coach Luke Walton said on Sunday, per Lakers.com “I wanted to use this break, the two days off, to mentally get away and get back to doing what we were doing well to have success with. For us that’s our defensive intensity. That’s how we compete on that end, it’s our transition defense, our individual defense, and getting out and running.”

And better letter: Larry Nance Jr. should return this week. As good as their defense has been, they miss his ability to guard multiple positions and his bounce.  And getting their future core to play together more this season can’t hurt either.