Should Laker fans worry?

Los Angeles Laker fans are starting to worry about the poor start their favorite team is off to in the current NBA season. Things haven’t seemed to fall into place, and for some alarmists are causing grief. Their team is off to a 0-2 start and were supposed to beat a depleted Dallas Mavericks side on opening day. 

But let’s remember that LA has plugged players into two crucial pieces, starters at center and point guard, and those are major changes, no matter how talented the veterans Dwight Howard and Steve Nash may be. There is a learning curve, an incubation period. Doubters are already spreading whispers recalling the Karl Malone-Gary Payton, which netted The Mailman and The Glove zero championships.

The Lakers should take a few weeks to get into the proper groove, find their rhythm together and start winning consistently. And they’re not looking at the new All-Star acquisitions as a patch job, no matter what people may say. It’s easy to nitpick early in the season. Granted, Nash got hurt and Howard hasn’t been perfect (particularly at the free throw line) but come on, who will remember these early losses when they make the playoffs or go to the finals?

The Oklahoma City Thunder were surprisingly quick to rise to the top of the league, and that was not something they did by slapping together a team quickly for one season. It was a gradual process, one that they will continue even with the unexpected trade of James Harden to the Houston Rockets. The back end of the trade is loaded with draft picks that will have untold value in the next couple of seasons and could serve them long-term.

The Boston Celtics example, meanwhile, may not really be applicable to the NBA today. When the Celts strung together NBA championships, they had a tremendous program of continuity. They always had a back-up practically as good as every starter. Many players who would have started in their teams subjugated fame for less pay and a better chance of winning championships. Just to give you an example, John Havlicek, who defined the role of the sixth man, began his career with Boston in the last year of Bob Cousy, and ended in the rookie year of Larry Bird. Hondo spanned the generations of championship runs.

Today though, players are less likely to take supporting roles and waste precious years or get stereotyped. Why is that?

First of all, the increased size of players has increased the possibility of injury. Players train harder and at younger and younger ages, shortening their pro careers. The human body can only take so much. But outside the court, the rise of player agents and business managers have spent the last 30 years whispering in the ears of budding players, getting them to believe they are worth more and more money. Patrick Ewing’s contract once required him to be among the three highest-paid players in the NBA. When Hakeem Olajuwon displaced him and he dropped to fourth, he sat out Knicks games until the situation was remedied.

The Miami Heat also spent some time building up, though it may not look like it. The acquisition of LeBron James and Chris Bosh were expected to bring immediate results. But in last year’s NBA Finals, one of the big stories was the play of the bench, as various support players came up big at various times in the series. So the new formula is not just having three main weapons, but four or five. The Thunder had that last year and made the Finals, too. This year, the Heat will be playing more relaxed. The question is if that will let them think more clearly or get them into trouble. Dwyane Wade will tell them that repeating is more challenging, because some of the little things that got you the championship might not be done anymore.

When the Lakers went after Howard, they also looked at their own history of having the best big men in the game, from George Mikan to Wilt Chamberlain to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neal. It only makes sense: frustrated centers play harder and bring rebounding and experience. Besides, as Kobe Bryant piles up the mileage, he will steadily lean more on the rest of the team to prolong his career. That also makes sense. Having Howard will allow Bryant to extend out or gamble on defense. Whether or not it works, the Lakers will end up with somebody throwing Bryant a fastbreak pass. Nash also brings a lot of toughness and savvy, even at age 38.

It’s going to be a long season, and many changes are afoot. The Lakers will find a way to win, it’s just a question of how soon.