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Lakers Nation > Blog > Lakers News > Mitch Kupchak: Lakers Haven’t Made Commitment To Playing Defense
Lakers News

Mitch Kupchak: Lakers Haven’t Made Commitment To Playing Defense

Corey Hansford
Published: 01/30/2017
3 Min Read
Trending Up, Trending Down: 2016-2017 Nba Season Week 13
Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports
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Coming into this season, one of the major concerns for the Los Angeles Lakers was their defense. Head coach Luke Walton spoke about turning around the team’s fortunes on that end of the floor. To that end, general manager Mitch Kupchak brought in a couple of veterans in Timofey Mozgov and Luol Deng to help out.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t mattered for the Lakers as they rank 26th in the NBA in points allowed and 29th in defensive rating. In particular, some of the young players like D’Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson, and Julius Randle have been terrible more often than not on that end.

This has many wondering if the Lakers can ever become a good defensive team with the core players they have. In an interview with David Aldridge of NBA.com, Kupchak said that he believes they can, but the players haven’t made the commitment on that end yet:

“If you look at the stats, I think we’re close to the bottom of the barrel. You would say that it’s not possible. But if you can score in this league, you can defend. It’s just a matter of putting your mind to it and making the commitment. So we haven’t done that yet. You can point to injuries, you can point to youth. But we haven’t been able to do it yet. There’s no reason why we can’t.”

While Russell, Randle, and Clarkson have all struggled for the most part defensively, Larry Nance Jr., Brandon Ingram, and Ivica Zubac have all shown that they can make an impact on that end. Kupchak is right in that the team as a whole simply hasn’t made that commitment.

The problem for the Lakers is that they’re defense usually picks up once their offense gets going and most teams prefer it to be the other way around. The Lakers stepping up on defense will improve their offense and the team as a whole.

There are some good individual defensive pieces on the roster, but whether or not they can come together to form a good unit remains to be seen.

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TAGGED:Los Angeles LakersMitch Kupchak
ByCorey Hansford
Corey Hansford is the Senior Editor for Lakers Nation, as well as a contributor for Dodger Blue, Rams News Wire, and Raiders News Wire. He is a passionate follower of the Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Dodgers, Chelsea FC, and the UFC. He can usually be seen arguing the merits of Kobe Bryant or cursing the decisions of Jerry Jones. He is also a former producer and associate producer for Sirius XM Sports Radio on both the Fantasy Sports Channel and College Sports Nation. Proud graduate of Long Beach Poly High School and The Real HU, Howard University, with a degree in Broadcast Journalism. Follow him on all social media outlets at @TheeCoreyH.
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