LA Lakers Notebook: Defining Success Depends on Who You Ask

LOS ANGELES—After winning back-to-back titles, the 2010-11 Los Angeles Lakers were swept out of the second round of the playoffs by Dirk Nowitzki and the champion Dallas Mavericks.      

In defeat, Lakers All-Star guard Kobe Bryant declared the season “a wasted year of my life.”

To Bryant, anything but a championship was a failed effort, but now, the team’s future Hall of Famer has retired. The Lakers won a disastrous 17 games in his final year—last season under former head coach Byron Scott.

For Luke Walton, Scott’s replacement, a “championship or bust” mantra simply won’t work. The team is just too young to peg with serious expectations.

What then, in their first year without Bryant in over 20 seasons, would be a success for the Lakers?

“It’s hard to say, but I think we have to go into the playoffs, or why are we playing?” newcomer and center Timofey Mozgov said at the Lakers’ annual media day on Monday. “We want to win every game. It is a young team, but like I say, I think we have a good coach, and I think we’re going to do a really good job.”

Mozgov, armed with a healthy, new four-year, $64 million contract, has a lot to be optimistic about, but it took 41 wins for the Houston Rockets to earn the eighth seed in the Western Conference last season. Expecting a 24-win jump from the Lakers is too much of a stretch.

Second-year forward Larry Nance Jr. gave a more practical response, one that didn’t focus primarily on win total.

“We don’t know yet,” Nance said. “This team is obviously going to be together, at least one more year, hopefully more. As long as we just see improvement, and we all play the right way, play as a team, play for one another…that’s a success.”

Nance spent most of the summer working out in El Segundo with his fellow young teammates, including forwards Brandon Ingram (this year’s second overall draft pick), Julius Randle and Anthony Brown, guards D’Angelo Russell and Jordan Clarkson, and centers Tarik Black and Ivica Zubac.

“It’s a different atmosphere this year,” the second-year guard Russell said. “I feel like everyone is buying in, really wanting to take steps forward.”

Russell also noted an improved vibe on media day, without Bryant’s larger-than-life presence.

“There’s not a lot of animosity in the room,” Russell said. “Everybody’s gotta get Kobe’s voice. It was all about Kobe [last year]. Now, it’s a different headline. It’s about the young guys, and it’s about the new coaching staff.”

Across the board, the players praised Walton for his basketball philosophy and likable, relatable personality.

“There’s going to be a lot more ball movement,” said Clarkson, who recently re-signed with the team on a four-year, $50 million deal. “There’s been a lot of emphasis on cutting, scoring off cuts, scoring without the ball, moving, a lot of movement. That’s probably the best thing for us, and it’s been great.”

In addition to the team’s young core, the Lakers signed forward Luol Deng, traded for guard Jose Calderon and inked Mozgov. The team also took a flier on forward/center Yi Jianlian, who spent five years in the league after going sixth overall in the 2007 draft to the Milwaukee Bucks but has not played in the NBA since 2012.

The Lakers also re-signed Metta World Peace, who will have to find a way to earn a roster spot as he did a year ago on a similar non-guaranteed contract.

“The definition of success? Does anybody have a Webster’s dictionary?” asked World Peace, who’s always an interesting interview. “Can somebody pull out their phone? Let’s see what Siri says.

“For this team, obviously you want to come out on top. Kobe had success on his mind at all times. Individually, he had standards. Everybody is different. Everybody can’t be Kobe, obviously. It just depends as a group, what is everybody thinking?”

A common theme was judging success by the …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com