The Lakers’ roster isn’t constructed to withstand prolonged absences from star forward LeBron James, Dylan Hernandez writes in a column for The Los Angeles Times. With James still sidelined on Wednesday, the Lakers lost in Milwaukee to drop to 8-8 on the season, including 4-6 in games without LeBron available.
When the Lakers acquired Russell Westbrook in the offseason, it was viewed in part as an insurance policy after James and Anthony Davis missed time due to injuries in 2020/21. The thinking was that if one of the Lakers’ two returning stars went down for an extended period, the club would now have a third star in Westbrook to help carry the load. However, Westbrook has been inconsistent during his first month as a Laker, raising the stakes of LeBron’s return, writes Hernandez.
Fortunately for L.A., it sounds as if James should be back very soon. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported earlier this week that there’s “growing optimism” the 36-year-old will be able to play on Friday in Boston.
That’s not a lock, however. While James said on Wednesday that he hopes to return vs. the Celtics, head coach Frank Vogel is still referring to him as day-to-day and sources told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin that there’s only a “50-50” chance he’ll be available on Friday.
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- Since returning from his thumb injury, Lakers guard Talen Horton-Tucker has started all three games and is making a strong case to remain in the starting five, writes Kyle Goon of The Southern California News Group. Horton-Tucker had perhaps his best game yet on Wednesday, with 25 points and 12 rebounds. “Sometimes scoring off the bench is what you need,” Vogel said of Horton-Tucker. “But he’s playing as good as anybody from a standpoint of both sides of the ball. What he’s given to us on defense and what he’s given to us on offense. So he’s been terrific in his first few games back and he’ll have a big role. He’s definitely made a case (to continue starting).”
- Third-year guard Kendrick Nunn, who has yet to debut for the Lakers after signing a two-year, $10MM deal in August, isn’t with the team on its current road trip, tweets Bill Oram of The Athletic. Nunn continues to do rehab work on the bone bruise in his right knee.
- The Lakers’ slow start has made it easier to second-guess Rob Pelinka‘s summer roster moves, Oram says in a story for The Athletic. According to various reports, L.A. had a chance to trade for DeMar DeRozan or Buddy Hield and to re-sign Alex Caruso, but passed on those opportunities. Acquiring Westbrook closed the door on the DeRozan and Hield scenarios, but re-signing Caruso was simply a matter of how far into the tax the organization was willing to go.
The problem is not the players we sign it the way they are use and their shot section. Better ball movement wouldn’t hurt either .
the problem is how little defense they have. they have mostly older offensive players. You need to have a balance. They should have beat the Bucks last night with how bad the Bucks offense was missing shots.
Their ball movement would improve with proper spacing if they had more capable shooters on the team. Having two guys like Russ and AD right now as their two primary scorers is really hurting them since LeBron is the only decent 3-point shooter in their Big 3, and he’s only mediocre in that regard.
THT – LBJ – Ellington – AD – Nunn.
Not the best shooting lineup on the league, but still pretty decent. You can switch Nunn with, A. Bradley, Monk, or even Rondo.
With RW they will never have enough spacing.
The problem isn’t the shooting IMO, is the defense, and there RW hurts even more.
Nah part of the problem is definitely the players. Westbrook isn’t good. Lakers were the only team dumb enough to trade actual value for him. This had disaster written all over it.
Agreed 85% of the Lakers troubles is Westbrook. That was a huge ill-advised gamble from the start.
Not only bc of who Russ is at this point in his career but because of what it did to their cap and their depth.
The other 15% is wear and tear on LeBron. He’s seeming human for the first time since basically 2003.
LeBron has seemed human pretty much the entire time he has been in LA. The next game he misses with the Lakers will be the 69th game he has missed over the last 4 seasons. That will match the number of games he missed during his first 15 seasons combined with Cleveland and Miami. The LeBron they have in LA has rarely been the LeBron in his prime who played for the Cavs or the Heat.
The LeBron who was the best player in the bubble and an MVP candidate the first half of last season would disagree with you.
And what about the rest of the time he has been in LA? The Lakers benefitted more than anyone from the stoppage in 2020 which gave both LeBron and AD the long rest they needed before Orlando.
Just look at what has happened with the short off-seasons since then. LeBron missed 27 games last year and AD missed 36 games.
The way this season is starting out, things don’t look much better.
2019 was a s$&!show we all agree. Yet despite that LBJ was 27/8/8 25.6 PER +8 BPM. So more or less still the best player in the league even if he had an injury.
2020 they won the ring and were the best team in the league – you can asterisk it if you want but it’s still a championship.
2021 they were also the best team in the west until injuries to both him and Davis essentially torpedoed their season. LeBron still posted 24.6 PER and +7.5 BPM. Some slippage yet still outstanding.
So the first two and half years of elite LeBron wasn’t enough? I’m far from the first person to defend him but his track record is hard to argue with.
‘Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.’ BS69
They definitely should’ve stuck with the Hield trade. I would’ve taken Bagley too just for the potential.
I wouldn’t touch bagely if they gave him up for free. Dude is so injury prone
So what if Bagley’s injury prone, most of the current Lakers are too.
I really think that the Lakers need LBJ healthy, Nunn available and RW to get hurt.
With how well is playing THT i rather have him being the 3rd option than RW. Even on defense the rotations could be a lot better.
With LBJ, and a few games toghether, the Lakers were 4-2; with THT at this lvl, Ellington and Nunn, they can turn around things.
Im not worried. Nunn coming back will be huge. same when Ariza is back. Take the best player off any team in the league and they will struggle. Also the team will prob change before the end of the year.
RW and Melo need to run the second unit with DJ/DH, Monk and Avery/Ellington/Rondo. RW and AD should never be on the floor together for more than 5 mins a game.
Two guys on the same team each playing 35 minutes per game will have to be on the floor together way more than 5 minutes a game. It’s unavoidable.
Types with your iPhone I presume. Man there are some stupid folks out there
If Lebron doesn’t hurry up and get back in the lineup, the Chinese bosses will pull the Lakers games from the broadcast schedule.
Dude, what is your obsession with China?
Does anyone care about them?
Just wondering, as I don’t & I don’t know anyone personally that gives a damn about China!
I’m sure someone cares about China with 1.5 billion people constituting 18% of the world population. Sounds like Don has never had good Chinese food.
Why do people say “inconsistent” when they mean “horrible”?
Westbrook maintained a somewhat illusory image of greatness last year simply because the possessions were there for him, as there was nothing in WAS outside of he and Beal.
Now he’s doing a slightly less efficient iteration of it in LA sans-LeBron. Large counting stats, median to poor efficiency stats, ho-hum team results.
The greater issue is what happens to Russ when LeBron is back? His worst games so far were with LBJ and for good reason. Outside of eating up possessions Westbrook is not a good NBA basketball player anymore. He has no offball skills to speak of.
How that fits with LeBron and AD remains to be seen.
Any team should gamble on girls Bagley or Thompson rn.
Who cares if he’s I jury prone, he’s you g and will grow into his body.
Hield is a shooter and Thompson is being wasted, mavs swap KP for hield and Bagley, Thompson to the Knicks.
Lol
I love making stuff up
I meant hield not girls
The advanced stats showed Westbrook was well past his prime. But I wanted to believe that Pelinka knew something that the stats didn’t.
I’m starting to think he’s simply uninterested in analytics and just went for the biggest name available.
Lebron is calling ALL the shots in LA.
THT is way better than Westbrook, that’s how far Westbrook has fallen. You can tell Westbrook was still somewhat satisfied with his stats against Bucks even though they lost, and he still was padding his stats final few minutes instead of allowing others(AD) to score. Lakers are in SERIOUS trouble unless they get rid of Westbrook.
To get rid of westbrook is to know also which team will be interested in him, thats the question.. Unless they package THT in a trade that involves westbrook!
Tht doesn’t have that much trade value even if he does pop
If he does pop he will surely opt out of his 23/24 yr making next year his only boon for new team
The Lakers are stuck w Westy for better or {most likely} worse – They can probably trade all future assets (1st) to get him off next year to a team like the Thunder but at that point does it even make sense ? Probably be better just to bite the bullet and have the ledger for 23 clean and in tact with just AD on payroll and a Tht player option which prolly will be declined . They have to think about 23/24 and beyond now and who will be alongside AD for when that happens. Not saying lay down these next 1.75 yrs but what you see is prolly what you are going to get