What we learned from the Lakers’ preseason: The team is a work in progress

After the hype and excitement of a productive offseason receded this month, the mundane business of training camp commenced.

Officially, training camp was short. In an effort to alleviate the strain of an NBA schedule and allow for more rest, the NBA season starts more than a week earlier than it did last year. So the Lakers’ two-a-day workouts lasted only three days, with a fourth one-workout day to finish the week.

In reality, though, the work only began with those intense sessions. Lakers coach Luke Walton made clear that while two-a-days ended early, the training would continue.

Injuries further delayed the team’s progress. Point guard Lonzo Ball missed the preseason’s final four games, but figures to be ready by the season opener. Center Brook Lopez missed its first three games.

And as the preseason closed, power forward Julius Randle, in a battle for the starting spot, strained a muscle between his ribs and missed practice on Saturday.

Heading into Walton’s second season and Ball’s first as the Lakers point guard, this team is a work in progress. And it will be all season long.

Here are five lessons learned during the Lakers’ preseason.

1. Brook Lopez is the focal point of the Lakers’ offense. Yes, Lopez has a big contract that is expiring at the end of the season and will free up a lot of salary cap space for the much ballyhooed summer of 2018. But when general manager Rob Pelinka celebrated the veteran center at his introductory news conference after trading D’Angelo Russell for him, that was not just empty praise. The Lakers want to win this season and to do so they’ll need the spacing and shooting Lopez offers. “Basketball should be played from the inside out,” Walton said. “Whether that’s penetrating with on the dribble, the pass, with him we were able to get the ball down low a couple times early. It just helped collapse the defense.”

2. Lonzo Ball is its identity. Ball has that rare ability to make other players better and it’s not just by the passes he makes or the position he puts his teammates in during the game. Ball makes other players better just by being on the court with them. There’s been a lot of talk this preseason about how Ball’s style of play is contagious, and that’s a big part of why the Lakers will play the way they will. They want the ball moving, they want a fast pace and they know the No. 2 overall draft pick from UCLA can lead them there.

3. Fixing the defense will be a struggle. Walton never had the pleasure of not hassling his players about defense last season — it was bad from start to finish. It’s been bad for years. A majority of the Lakers have played only on NBA teams that ranked in the bottom three in the league defensively. Things won’t get dramatically better right away this season. While the Lakers did add Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who is a very strong on-ball defender, one person alone can’t turn around what’s become a cultural problem for the Lakers. Incremental steps defensively will be a challenge.

4. Summer league was no fluke for Kyle Kuzma. He might not be the Lakers’ opening-day starter — Walton has indicated that while Kuzma is in the discussion to start at power forward, Julius Randle and Larry Nance Jr. will get much stronger consideration. But Kuzma, the Lakers’ other first-round pick this year, was their best shooting forward throughout the preseason, making 51.4% of his shots. He plays with a confidence and a motor that his coaches love. What’s interesting is that even heading into summer league, the Lakers weren’t sure about what they had with Kuzma. Said summer league coach Jud Buechler: “The little minicamp we had in our facility, he did some good things but just wasn’t very consistent. I think we started Travis Wear the first game because Travis was more of a pro, more polished. … [Kuzma] just has such a high motor and he plays so hard. … He just kind of caught fire and it was just so fun to watch him.”

5. Alex Caruso will force a difficult decision from the Lakers if he hasn’t already. In the Lakers’ second round of cuts, they reduced their roster to 16 players by waiving Wear, Briante Weber and Vander Blue. They have one more roster spot available that isn’t taken up by a guaranteed contract, and Caruso, a rookie guard out of Texas A&M, wants it. Veteran big man Andrew Bogut was expected to be the player who takes that 15th slot, but the Lakers don’t necessarily view this as a competition between the non-guaranteed players for the 15th roster spot. Caruso could, in theory, make the roster by forcing out someone else. If Caruso remains on a two-way contract now, he can’t be with the Lakers for more than 45 days during the season, and if the Lakers want him longer, they’ll have to make room for him somehow.

tania.ganguli@latimes.com

Follow Tania Ganguli on Twitter @taniaganguli