BOSTON – Nineteen games in, and it’s not hard to find the issues with the Lakers. Injuries have decimated whatever depth they might have had, the team’s defense is the worst in the league and Kobe Bryant can sometimes play as though he is the only man on the floor.

But the most vexing development of the young season has been the inconsistent play of Jeremy Lin.

While it was never really expected that he would regain the form of the 2012 Lin who captured hearts and minds with Linsanity as a member of the New York Knicks, the point guard acquired from Houston in July was nonetheless being counted on to provide a steady hand in the backcourt next to Bryant.

What label to use for Lin from night to night has pinballed: efficient, inefficient, spotty, reliable, aggressive, facilitator. In Wednesday’s loss to Washington, he was just bad, missing all 10 of his shots, including six 3-pointers, which Coach Byron Scott chalked up to an off night. It was the second time he has been held scoreless this season.

But there are issues, bigger issues. Namely, Lin still isn’t particularly comfortable in the Lakers’ offense.

However, it was not entirely unexpected that this marriage between the offensively minded Lin and the Lakers, whose new offense features a two-guard front, would take some work.

“Houston was the ideal system for me,” Lin said earlier this week, “personally as a player in terms of spreading the floor, running and making plays and having guys with a lot of space, stretch fours. That’s the ideal system, but that’s not what we have here.”

Lin’s numbers are not starkly different from his career statistics. He averages 11.8 points and 5.1 assists in 30 minutes, and is shooting 33 percent on 3-pointers.

“I think in the system he was in (in 2012) in New York, the ball was in his hand 95 percent of the time,” Scott said, “so he was able to run pick and roll and be able to get to the basket and get shots for himself. This system you have to get other people shots as well. You have to be able to do both. There’s a fine line at times.”

Some nights have been better than others. While he was benched in the fourth quarter Wednesday, he posted a marvelous 18-point, 11-assist game less than a week earlier in a one-point loss to Minnesota.

Scott was brutally candid about Lin’s progress, saying the 26-year-old still needs to “develop point guard instincts” such as clock management, recognizing when a player is hot and going back to a play if it has resulted in baskets.

“All of those are point guard instincts,” Scott said, “and he has some of those but he still has to develop a lot more of them.”

Lin said “every player has an ideal system” but says he believes he is at a point in his career where he can adjust to what a team needs.

“It’s no secret to anybody what system is best for me,” he said. “It’s not a surprise, but it’s just a matter of seeing what your team has, what is your personnel? A spread, run-and-gun, open floor, pick-and-roll system might not be what’s best for us given our personnel.”

The question of whether Lin, who becomes a free agent after this season, can develop into a long-term starter for the Lakers is a good sidebar to a Thursday development. A photograph surfaced on social sharing website Reddit purportedly showed a breakfast meetup between Bryant and Celtics star Rajon Rondo. While a friendly get-together between the guards – who have long expressed their mutual admiration – is perfectly plausible, it didn’t take long for speculative types to conclude that Bryant was attempting to recruit Rondo, who holds a no-trade clause but doesn’t seem long for Boston amid a Celtics rebuild.

The Lakers have few assets to pry Rondo from the Celtics, but Steve Nash’s expiring contract would almost certainly be front and center.

But when the old rivals take the court Friday night at TD Garden, it will be Rondo starting for the Celtics, and Lin for the Lakers.

Fans may dream of seeing a bigger star alongside Bryant in the backcourt, but for the time being, any improvement at point guard is controlled not by the front office, but by Lin.

Contact the writer: boram@ocregister.com