1. Julius Randle is team MVP.

Only one player in the NBA is averaging at least 15 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists while shooting 56 percent from the field: Randle.

We live in an era of contrived statistics, but the math is and forever will be sound when it comes to long-term averages. Those take consistent work and therefore are bulletproof–and Randle has been the Lakers’ rock.

The only Lakers to post single seasons so strong with the aforementioned stats since 1970 are Pau Gasol, Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain. Randle is only the 15th NBA player in the past 35 years to post those numbers.

It’s a far cry from early in the season when many liked Larry Nance Jr.’s potential better and Randle didn’t play more than half the game a single time in the Lakers’ first 12 contests.

Randle is a unique success story in the modern NBA. He is 23, and these days that qualifies as not so young. Dikembe Mutombo was actually 25 when he debuted in this league out of Georgetown in 1991. But this era is led by the likes of Ball and Ingram, who after three more entire seasons will still be 23.

Julius Randle guarding Jabari Parker

Randle had been around long enough that some flat-out gave up on him being capable of becoming much more than he was.

But this is a guy who always had the potential to dominate, because he did dominate at every level and every age to the point that he was Rivals’ No. 2 prep prospect in 2013 (behind only Andrew Wiggins, who went No. 1 in the 2014 NBA draft to Randle’s No. 7). Randle’s best college games in his one year at Kentucky were not so unlike what Randle does now: forcing his way close to the basket and figuring out a way to score.

Randle’s breakthrough has happened even though some conclusions were jumped to that the modern game didn’t fit him. Randle is simply gifted at what he does well, and he has figured out how to do it in the NBA.

He also addressed a myriad of little things that were holding him back. He morphed into this dynamic defender who can switch to guard anyone of any size because he learned to think and communicate more on defense. He stayed down on pump fakes and avoided lapses from fatigue.

As recently as the All-Star break, Randle was viewed as making good progress, not this great leap forward. But he has kept it coming, and now he’s on the cusp of being the only Laker to play in all 82 games, just another way he has been more consistent than anyone ever expected before this season.

2. Where’s the drama?

The Lakers have often been successful, and they’ve just as often been a soap opera. Big personalities can cause major controversies, and individual agendas often rub others the wrong way.

These Lakers, however, were largely controversy-free this season.

What was the biggest to-do?

Randle not playing or starting early in the season? That worked out pretty well, all things considered. It was a shock to everyone’s system that Jordan Clarkson and Nance got traded, but the bold confidence of the front office in clearing cap space has been widely praised.

Brook Lopez and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope came to the Lakers for this season with only one year left on their contracts, potentially an awkward situation where they want to earn their next deal with no strong connections to teammates or the franchise. They weren’t perfect leaders or players, but Lopez and Caldwell-Pope generally played the way the coaches wanted them to play and definitely gave their young teammates space to grow.

Brandon Ingram and KCP celebrating a win.

Even though this group never got a consistent run together, check it out: The starting lineup of Ball, Caldwell-Pope, Ingram, Randle and Lopez went 6-1 this season.

Maybe the biggest controversy of the season was Ball’s father, LaVar, commenting about Luke Walton’s coaching on Jan. 7…except the team won that very night with stellar defensive activity and up-tempo team offense to begin the run of 16 victories in 23 games that became the defining stretch of the Lakers’ season.

Veterans Isaiah Thomas and Channing Frye came with a first-round pick in the trade for Clarkson and Nance, and Thomas and Frye continued to show how peachy the integration of free-agent-to-be veterans could be. Overall, it was a communal yet competitive vibe, and one much different from the clear delineation between Kobe Bryant and all the youngsters in past Lakers years or the clashing personalities that often rise up from NBA rosters.

It’s an encouraging sign that the Lakers’ young players could be quite easy to play with, character-wise, as the future unfolds.

Lopez was asked about his history on losing teams that might become even more fractured late in seasons.

“With the wrong kind of team and guys, yeah,” Lopez said. “But that’s absolutely not the case here.”

3. Kyle Kuzma, go-to guy.

Kuzma has officially made his case that the NBA isn’t much harder than NBA Summer League. That’s just not possible, but Kuzma has done now just what he did then.

So you have to wonder whether he might be able to do other things that he previously was the only one to expect he could do.

Shooting was the one thing the Lakers knew they needed to add in the offseason to play the floor-spaced style Walton wants, and they just broke the franchise record for three-pointers in a season with Kuzma’s considerable help.

Kyle Kuzma

But Kuzma scored in a variety of ways, and it’s no stretch to state similarity between Kuzma’s polished scoring game and Bryant’s. They both make it look easy in games, but they both put in extensive work on fundamentals with a flair for creativity in their craft.

Kuzma has been further diligent in trying to be an efficient scorer rather than an unconscious one–highly uncommon for a young player. Among the very few Lakers rookies ever to score as much as Kuzma has this season–Elgin Baylor (1959), George Mikan (1949), Jerry West (1961) and Magic Johnson (1980)–only Johnson at 53 percent field-goal shooting was anywhere close to Kuzma’s 45 percent.

Now that we’ve got the running version of Kareem’s shot called the “Skyle Hook” to add to “Kuz Control” and everything else, we’re going to have to resort to Kuzma’s middle name soon for fresh material. (Alexander the Great?)

Kuzma’s prolific scoring after being drafted 27th was something no one in the league figured on. As such, there was no greater pleasant surprise this season than this wild ride that has been Kuzmania.

4. Luke Walton can teach and young players can play good team defense.

The Lakers’ defensive efficiency last season was so poor that at 1.095 points allowed per possession, it’d be the worst in the league again if measured against teams from this season. That’s quite a statement considering how little resistance the lowly Phoenix Suns have put up this season.

Walton’s first season as a head coach was that bad defensively, and as a player he was known for savvy offense more than any tough defense.

So it’s undeniably reassuring for the Lakers to be in line to finish in the top half of the league in defensive efficiency this season. Walton’s goal to finish in the top 10 will go unmet, partly because of the big trade and partly because of so many late-season injuries. Nevertheless, this is massive progress that came about only because of massive commitment on Walton’s part to teach team defense this season.

Luke Walton with Ivica Zubac

At times Walton was like a grade-school baseball coach not letting his boys even pick up a bat in practice. The message got through clearly that defense was to be this team’s priority, even though young NBA players who’ve skated by on offensive talent their entire lives rarely embrace, much less accept, that message.

It’s a credit to Walton, who ironically was maligned before he entered the NBA as a player with poor wingspan for his size–just like Randle. A lot of it boils down to this: Walton has cared about the players, so the players have cared about the defense he wants them to care about.

With Randle often the key because of his switch-ability, the Lakers became adept at understanding how not just to switch, but how to switch into different schemes. Executing those schemes led to enough victories for the players to see the merit in it and mostly keep it up.

No one knew if this kind of defense was even possible for the Lakers before the season. From an individual perspective, Ball has been one of the biggest surprises–because someone NBA scouts thought could develop into a good defender has been a good defender from the get-go.

This will stand as by far the winningest season the Lakers have had in the past five years. Authentic defensive improvement, above all else, is why the Lakers went from that possibility to this reality.

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Kevin Ding is an independent sports writer, and the statements and views expressed by him do not necessarily represent the views of the Los Angeles Lakers.

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