Is Lonzo Ball on the verge of stardom? Will the Los Angeles Lakers bring back their “Showtime” identity? Which big-name free agents will make Los Angeles their new home this offseason?

The youngest team in the league’s media coverage this year has been a circus full of unanswered questions, but within all the madness rests one substantial fact you can’t avoid whenever you turn on a Lakers game: This youth-filled squad plays hard night in and night out, and it has resulted in drastic improvement on the defensive end.

We’ve heard so much about the Lakers’ culture change on the offensive end, as they have evolved into a pass-happy offense. That was expected for a team coached by Luke Walton, who guided the Golden State Warriors’ unselfish offensive juggernaut to a 39-4 record in the absence of Steve Kerr, and led by a rookie point guard whose father recently proclaimed that his new Junior Basketball Association doesn’t need a logo of a guy dribbling because “nobody does that anymore.”

What came as a surprise, however, is how Walton’s team has been able to undergo a complete cultural transformation on the defensive end. The Lakers have skyrocketed from being the worst defensive team in the league last season to currently sitting eighth in defensive rating.

According to Synergy, they’ve have soared to the top in defending spot-up jump shots, allowing just 0.884 points per possession on an opposing effective field-goal percentage of 45.4 percent. They also rank second in opposing three-point percentage, holding their opponents to 34.3 percent from beyond the arc. L.A. was dead last defending spot-ups last year, allowing 1.088 points per possession and an eFG% of 56 percent, and fifth worst guarding the long ball, allowing its foes to shoot 37 percent.

The newfound success for the inexperienced team all starts with effort. The Lakers are chasing down shooters and challenging more shots than any other club. At 69.5 contested shots per game, they bother a full four shots more than their runner-up—roughly the same margin that exists between the second and 11^th-ranked teams.

What sets the Lakers apart from other teams in their ability to disrupt jumpers, aside from their high level of energy, is having a frontcourt comprised of several lanky, versatile players who can switch onto smaller guards and wings. Take this play for example. The Charlotte Hornets force Julius Randle to switch Kentavious Caldwell-Pope onto Kemba Walker, one of the shiftiest guards out there. Randle is able to keep up with Walker and coerce him into a bad shot:

Skepticism circulated around Randle’s value coming out of last season, and for good reason. For undersized big men, a fine line exists between being considered a player with no position in the league and being touted as a multi-positional asset. Where a player falls in relation to that line often comes down to their defensive versatility.

Last season, Randle was a liability: too small to defend bigs and too immobile to switch onto wings. According to Synergy, a team-high 14.2 percent of opposing teams’ isolations came against the former first-round pick, and he struggled tremendously, ranking in the NBA’s bottom 14 percent. Against spot-up jumpers, he sat in the bottom 8 percent.

The script has completely flipped this year for the Kentucky alum, who initially made headlines after he underwent an incredible body transformation over the offseason.

Fast forward to this year, and the young Lakers big man now ranks in the top 34 percent against isolation while defending 24.2 percent of opposing iso attempts. His increased conditioning and the corresponding ability to chase players on the perimeter has also enabled him to become one of the league’s premier spot-up defenders, ranking in the top 4 percent by holding shooters to 22.7 percent shooting from the field.

But the improvements of existing players don’t fully reveal the story about the team’s development. The additions of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Brook Lopez and especially Lonzo Ball have also contributed significantly to L.A.’s defensive surge.

I’ll admit, like many others, I was extremely high on Ball’s offensive ability right out of the gate, and he has fallen short of expectations with his struggles to create and make shots for himself. Defensively though, he has been exceedingly impressive and is way ahead of where anybody thought he would be on that end of the floor.

According to NBA Math’s total points added database, Ball ranks No. 9 in defensive points saved. He is among an elite group of 14 players who average at least one steal and one block per game—a list that includes the likes of Draymond Green, Kawhi Leonard, John Wall, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Lebron James.

Standing at 6’6”, Ball is able to cover ground quickly and close out on shooters effectively. Using his wiry frame, he is also able to corral rebounds and create fast-break opportunities. The Lakers don’t finish particularly well in transition—0.994 points per possession, according to Synergy, which is third worst in the league—but they run more frequently than any team. Transition opportunities comprise 20.2 percent of their total possessions. On this play, the Lakers rookie forces J.J. Redick out of a catch-and-shoot three and into traffic, where he is able to block his shot and push the ball down the court for an easy dunk:

The Lakers have a ways to go before they can be considered a contender in the West, but Walton and the team’s front office are setting the stage for what Los Angeles fans have been waiting for: the return of “Showtime.”

Follow Faizan on Twitter @Faizan_Has.

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Unless otherwise indicated, all stats are from NBA Math, Basketball-Reference or NBA.com and are accurate heading into games on December 23.