Six games up and six games down, and Lakers preseason is over. We had a pinch of excitement, some great surprises, a tad of disappointment, a pretty boring final game, and were left with a lot of questions. Why didn’t Kyle Kuzma score 50 points a game? How come someone scored on defensive player of the century Kentavious Caldwell-Pope? Will Lonzo ever make a shot? Difficult, probing questions.

6 games of basketball has also left us with some data. Here are 25 stats from preseason that highlight some good (and bad) performances:

Offense

Despite Lonzo Ball only playing in 2 of 6 preseason games, the Lakers had 23.2% of their offensive possessions be generated in transition. That’s higher than any team this preseason and higher than any regular season team on record. The team’s half court efficiency checks in at 20th and their transition efficiency a measly 26th. LA’s efficiency in special situations regressed from where it was the first few games, but they finished preseason 11th in BLOB (baseline out of bounds) efficiency, 6th in SLOB (sideline out of bounds) efficiency, and 4th in ATO (after timeout) efficiency. Accounting for both scoring and passing leading to shots, the Lakers ranked 8th in isolation efficiency, 16th in pick and roll efficiency, and 20th in post up efficiency. The Lakers were the 27th most efficient team in catch and shoot efficiency and 20th in pull up efficiency. This is not a good shooting team. Larry Nance Jr had 7 transition possessions in 6 games. Julius Randle and Kyle Kuzma each had 24, Jordan Clarkson had 19, Brandon Ingram had 17, and KCP had 16. Ingram shot 3 for 11 on those transition shots, which is very very bad. KCP shot 5 for 14 on his transition looks, which is also terrible. Julius Randle’s efficiencies in his play types are almost identical to what they were last season, but his overall efficiency has spiked. Why? Because instead of isolation being his most frequent half court play type it’s fallen to just 4.5% of his offense. The Lakers had zero (0) players above the 50th percentile in spot up shooting efficiency. Kuz lead the team & was exactly the 50th percentile. Jordan Clarkson was 9 for 14 scoring from the pick and roll (89th percentile PPP) and guys shot 7 for 12 after his PnR kickouts. Brook Lopez was a perfect 6 for 6 shooting as a pick and roll roller. He had 3 pops, 2 rolls, and 1 slip. Kuzma led the team in isolation possessions with 11, and scored 15 points on those chances. He shot 4 for 6 and drew 4 shooting fouls. His 1.364 points per possession was the second best of any preseason NBA player. Julius Randle shot 3 for 10 in the post, Lopez shot 4 for 9, Kuzma was 1 for 2, and Ingram was 0 for 3. KCP had 13 off screen possessions and scored 1.000 PPP on those chances (50th percentile). No other laker had more than 3 off screen possessions. Julius Randle and Larry Nance Jr. led the team with 2 putback makes each.

Defense