The preseason isn't where you'd want to sound off the alarms if a team isn't performing the way it's expected, especially when there are plenty of new faces on the roster.
Then again, given all the additions they made, people didn't expect the Los Angeles Lakers to go 0-4 to start the preseason, especially losing the way they've lost.
Even so, seven-time NBA Champion Robert Horry says that he's not there yet in terms of panic because he still needs to see them playing together:
“I’m about like 15-20% panicking,” said Horry on Spectrum SportsNet. “I want to see them play more. I know people ‘Oh we can just turn it on.’ You can’t just turn it on when you haven’t been playing together. You haven’t played one quarter together. You haven’t played a game together.
“Preseason games are like practice, like I said earlier. But you got to have those reps with one another to get to know each other. I know you’re doing this in practice and you’re able to do great things in practice. But you are going to get some guys that will probably never step on the court and practice," Horry added. "You got to go against the competition to understand if the things you’re doing in practice is going to work. So that’s why I would love to see these guys get out there play a couple of games in preseason.”
James Worthy was worried about the Lakers' lack of continuity and reps with their stars together, as Anthony Davis has yet to play next to Russell Westbrook and LeBron James:
“There’s no continuity,” the Lakers legend said. “I don’t care about the wins and losses. You get a little bit of action out of AD, you get spurts of flashes of good play. Overall you look at Phoenix they have continuity, they’re playing their guys. They’re playing the guys that they’re going to be playing. There’s continuity there.
“Golden State. The changes that they’re making, there’s continuity there. Lakers it’s just kinda getting blown out of games and not really in the games. They get blown early and then come back and get blown out again. I wouldn’t mind saying ‘Forget the W’s and losses.’ I wouldn’t mind seeing some continuity that lasts for three and a half quarters. I haven’t see that,'" Worthy concluded.
At the end of the day, none of these games actually counts or matter when it comes to playoff seeding.
Then again, you don't want to get off to a slow start to the season with a stacked Western Conference, so hopefully, they'll turn things around rather sooner than later.
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