Lakers News: Patrick Beverley Explains Team-First Ethos At Intro Presser
Veteran point guard Patrick Beverley enjoyed his first chat with assembled media as a Laker this past Tuesday. The 34-year-old was his typical confident and verbose self.
“What I can add is a willingness to be prepared every day,” Beverley informed reporters at the Lakers' El Segundo practice facility, the UCLA Health Training Center (hat tip to Mike Trudell of Lakers.com for the quote). “Preparation is really big for me. My will ability. Willingness to be at practice on time, willingness to compete every day, willingness to win a lot of games and potentially go to the playoffs. A will factor.”
Trudell indicates that Beverley's teams have consistently boasted a top-10 net rating across each of his first 10 NBA seasons. In fact, teams featuring the 6'1" vet out of the University of Arkansas have actually had a top-five net rating for nine of those seasons. Last year, Beverley's then-team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, had a 3.7 net rating (a metric that gauge's a team's point advantage across 100 possessions), good for the fifth best such measurement in the entire league.
Beverley was blunt about how he saw himself helping L.A. return to the postseason in 2021-22. "I just feel like they didn't make the playoffs last year [the team's paltry 33-49 finish made them the No. 11 seed in the West]," he said, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. "We're being honest, that's just the truth, so you can see all the banners, but you know, it's what have you done for me lately? And lately, [the Lakers] haven't been a good team. And I'm here. Obviously, Coach [Darvin] Ham is here."
The three-time All-Defensive Teamer has yet to miss a postseason during his NBA run, and he's hoping to keep that trend going in year 11.
When discussing each of his prior teams -- the Houston Rockets, the Los Angeles Clippers and the Timberwolves -- Beverley remained confident about his impact, reports Jovan Buha of The Athletic. “I changed the culture of all three of them,” Beverley said. “I am trying to implement what I feel like has worked over the past years, and that is the closer you are, the more you are a team, the more you spend together, the better you’ll be as a team... If you can’t have those tough conversations amongst each other, you damn sure ain’t going to have them in front of 20,000 people when the crowd is going against you. So my thing has always been camaraderie, team, team, team. If you do that and play hard, you just let the dominoes fall wherever they fall from there.”
When asked about his fit with new teammate Russell Westbrook, Beverley shrugged off any concerns about a possibly awkward on-court dynamic.
“I actually think it’s perfect,” Beverley said. “I shoot a ton out of the right corner wing. He posts on the left wing out of ATO’s [offensive sets run after time outs], he likes to post on the right wing. I shoot 50% from the left corner three. It works. To have another ballhandler out there with me, obviously with LeBron also, the more ballhandlers the better you are as a team." Westbrook remains an excellent passer, having dished out 7.1 assists last season, though he can't be trusted with the basketball in his mitts at the end of regulation. The 6'3" UCLA product also ranked second in the league last season in cumulative turnovers (295). Perhaps the pairing between Westbrook and Beverley could work, but it might behoove L.A. to separate the duo before the end of games.
“He cares about his teammates,” Beverley's new head coach Darvin Ham raved about L.A.'s new acquisition (per Buha). “He lives and breathes team. He’s a hell of an individual and team defender. But his goal, really, hasn’t been accolades. It’s been his impact on winning basketball."
