There are still seven games to go, but the Los Angeles Lakers have already had themselves a heck of a season. Picked by most sportsbooks to have an over/under win total of 42.5, they've already cruised past that number with their 46-29 record, setting themselves up for a chance to grab a top-four seed and have home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
JJ Redick has done an outstanding job in his first year as head coach, especially considering that his only real coaching experience before this was coaching his son's youth league team. Whatever he's doing, it's working, as L.A. has vastly improved their defense and embraced the 3-pointer more than ever before.
Redick has been great, as has general manager Rob Pelinka, who authored the heist of the century by pilfering Luka Dončić from the Dallas Mavericks at the trade deadline. At the end of the day though, you can't win without players, and the purple and gold have gotten as much or more than they could have hoped for from several guys on the team.
Today we're looking at four that have met or exceeded expectations to get the Lakers to where they are today. Luka isn't on this list since he hasn't quite been around long enough, but rest assured in knowing that Lakers fans are very happy to have him, too.
LeBron James has shown no signs of slowing down in his 22nd season
We have to start with the best player of his generation, LeBron James. People have been waiting for LeBron's downfall for years, none more so than this guy (NSFW), but LeBron continues to play at an absurdly high level.
The man is now 40 years old, the oldest active player in the NBA, and he looks like a lock for Second Team All-NBA with his averages of 24.4 points, 8.1 rebounds and 8.4 assists. He's shooting 51 percent from the floor while playing the best defense he has in years, and despite a few minor injuries, he's been incredibly durable, as he still has a shot to play 70 games.
What LeBron is doing is unprecedented in the NBA. Whenever he finally decides to hang it up, his records are going to be as close to untouchable as can be, because the thought of somebody being this good for almost a quarter of a century is unfathomable, or at least it was until he came along.
The Lakers didn't really get going until Dorian Finney-Smith showed up
Dorian Finney-Smith didn't begin the year on the Lakers roster, but whatever expectations fans had of him when he arrived via trade in late December, he's surpassed them easily. Finney-Smith's arrival changed the Lakers' defensive identity, making them more switchable and better equipped to stop perimeter scorers, and his 38.6 percent 3-point shooting has kept opposing defenses honest.
Finney-Smith has only played in 37 of L.A.'s 75 games, yet he leads the team in plus-minus by far. He also represents an addition by subtraction element, as his arrival came at the expense of D'Angelo Russell, whose exit seemed preordained from the moment he signed his player option this past summer. With Finney-Smith, the Lakers are a more composed, professional and reliable team night in and night out than they were with Russell, who was capable of the occasional scoring outburst but was just as likely to shoot the Lakers out of games or kill the offense with too many turnovers.
As the postseason gets closer, Finney-Smith's importance to the team will only become more apparent. The Western Conference contenders are loaded with matchup nightmares, from Anthony Edwards and Steph Curry to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Ja Morant. DFS gives the Lakers a chance to slow them down.
Jaxson Hayes has lessened the sting of losing Anthony Davis
It's not a backhanded compliment to say that Jaxson Hayes is the most surprising inclusion on this list. The sixth-year center entered the season as a "break glass in case of emergency" option if Anthony Davis went down, but was suddenly thrust into a larger role when AD was shockingly traded to Dallas in early February.
Hayes has responded by seizing his larger role and doing his best Davis Lite impersonation. Defensively, he's been smart and tough at the rim, as his minutes have gone from the mid-teens before Davis' departure to about 23 per game since the trade, he's only gotten more effective.
Hayes knows his role, which is to say that he doesn't hunt his own shot but is more than willing to finish when he catches a lob or grabs an offensive rebound. Since Davis left, he's shooting well over 70 percent from the floor, which means he's making winning plays but doing nothing to hurt the team or get in the way of the Lakers' primary scorers.
When Hayes plays his best, the Lakers almost always win. He's scored in double figures 11 times this year. The Lakers' record in those games? 9-2.
Austin Reaves has gotten better and better every single year
It seems that every offseason, Lakers fans say something to the effect of, "Austin Reaves is pretty good, I wonder if we can package him in a trade for someone better?" Then every year, Reaves takes his game up a notch. Thankfully, Rob Pelinka has resisted the urge to move him.
Reaves is now in his fourth year in the league, and it's fair to say that he's on an All-Star trajectory. His scoring average is up to 19.9 per game, he's 22nd in the league with 5.9 assists per game, and when the Lakers have needed him to step up in the absence of LeBron, AD, or Luka, he's responded by putting the team on his back.
Reaves was money in Saturday's big win over the Grizzlies, scoring 31 on only 16 shots. When the rest of the Lakers' starting lineup was all out against the Nuggets three weeks ago, he almost single-handedly led them to victory anyway with a 37/13/8 line. The 45 he scored against the Pacers in February is tied with Luka for the most scored by a Laker this season.
ESPN's Kendrick Perkins tweeted out a few days ago that LeBron and Luka are the Lakers' best players, but Reaves is their most important player. It's a bit hyperbolic, but we get his point. Reaves is that integral to everything the Lakers do, and he just keeps getting better.