Halfway through the season, what are the Lakers?

At 21-20, the Lakers have officially reached the halfway point of their season. By this point, most teams have a clear idea of what their identity is, or what play-style they want to embrace and which lineups they trust the most. Or, at least they should.

But, for a myriad of reasons both inside and outside their control, the Lakers are not one of those teams, and continue to find themselves firmly still in the experimenting stage.

It didn’t always feel that way this week, because — despite dropping their latest game after a poor performance against the Memphis Grizzlies — the team’s play has been trending upwards after notching four consecutive wins for the first time all season. Their new small-ball approach has proven to be effective, with LeBron James’ stellar play continuing to anchor the club. The lengthy injury report that has riddled the team all year has also shortened, with the recent Anthony Davis and Kendrick Nunn sightings suggesting their returns may not be too far off.

And with the second half of the campaign about to tip off, there will very likely be even more tinkering to the roster with the trade deadline looming, internal developments that will introduce new wrinkles, and continuing external factors that the squad must navigate while trying to make up ground within the Western Conference log-jam.

Through it all, there will be many questions that will finally be answered, as well as new ones that will surely arise. All of which brings us to today’s episode.

On this week’s edition of Talk-O-Tuesday, our hosts Alex Padilla and Alex Regla recapped the Lakers’ first half of the season, then sussed out their positives, negatives and what they want to see occur most in the team’s last 41 games. Later, the guys touched on the latest trade rumors surrounding the team, and then handed out their two bold predictions on what they think may be waiting on the horizon.

You can listen to the full episode below, and to make sure you never miss a show, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts.

And for a short-form recap pod, check out Lakers Lowdown, in which Anthony Irwin recaps the previous day’s news and gets you ready for the day ahead in LakerLand, every weekday morning on the Silver Screen & Roll Podcast feed.