The Trouble with the Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers have won three out of the last four NBA Championships, thanks to Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. With a mediocre supporting cast, L.A. has needed the Big Diesel and Kobe to put up big numbers in order to win. Perennial All-NBAers, they were also fantasy stalwarts. Last year, both posted KF averages* above 1.100, joining Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett, and Tim Duncan as the only players to do so.
This off-season, the Lakers brought in Karl Malone and Gary Payton to help Shaq and Kobe carry the team. For those of you counting at home, that makes four statistical monsters on one roster. The .972 avg that Malone posted last year was his lowest since his rookie season. A couple of thousand points from overtaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA's all-time leading scorer, Malone has been a career fantasy star. He has a lifetime KF avg of 1.105 and, incredibly, has played fewer than 80 games only once in his 18-year career--and that was in the strike-shortened 1998-99 season. Payton's career KF avg is a more modest .873. Last season's .868, however, was his first sub-.900 avg in five years. Payton, like Malone, has been remarkably durable. The only season in which he played less than 79 games was, you guessed it, 1998-99.
How many teams in NBA history have featured a quartet of fantasy superstars? Not very many. The Celtics of the early eighties never had three players who broke the 1.000 plateau in the same season. In 1981, 1982, and 1983, Larry Bird and Robert Parrish surpassed the magic number, but Kevin McHale came more than .100 points short each year. When McHale reached .921 in 1984, Parrish's KF avg dipped to .937. By the time McHale became a 1.000 player (in 1987), the Chief registered an .880.
How about Boston's nemesis, the run and gun Lakers of yesteryear? Well, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson both averaged over 1.000 in each season from 1982 through 1986, but during that time, James Worthy never crossed the threshold. In fact, he only had one .900 year (1985). Not coincidentally, Kareem's yearly KF avg declined from the 1.300s to 1.100s after Magic arrived, and Magic and Kareem had their highest aggregate output the year before Worthy joined the team.
The point is, in every game, there are only so many points, rebounds and assists to go around. The new-look Lakers might be a bit more statistically productive than last year's team, but don't expect O'Neal, Bryant, Malone, and Payton to maintain their lofty KF avgs. Check out the chart below. Last season, the Lakers' top four Kentucky Fried performers produced a higher total average than any other team's top four performers:
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