When a team only wins a single exhibition game in the preseason and then proceeds to start the regular season winless through their first three games, it’s never just one reason that fully encapsulates the struggles. For these Lakers, then, we could point to any number of variables and, in reality, should be pointing to all of them in order to provide all the necessary context.
In the preseason, beyond the unserious nature of how the team approached the second half of most of the exhibition games, a key reason offered by many of the players was the lack of continuity stemming from a nearly totally overhauled roster and a new head coach.