Bit late on this one, work is blowing up as we prep the college to re-open to a small degree. Also, I had a chance to attend the Celtics game in-person but was not quite ready to take that step yet (plus the tickets were $200 bucks each). Anyhow, the under-manned Lakers not surprisingly lost to Boston but the real news is Anthony Davis is returning soon. Hopefully.
- Alright fine, we’ll talk about the game first. J-Brown went off, the Laker starters not named Marc Gasol pretty much took the night off and the bench led by THT and Ben McLemore led a furious come back that came up short. This Laker team without LBJ and AD tends to play too many games with a nonchalant “we got this” kind of attitude. I assure you, they do not “got this”. The fact they’ve managed to play .500 ball without their two superstars is commendable but one can only imagine that if a greater sense of urgency was present that a couple more wins could have been squeezed out. Also, once again, I didn’t think the coaching staff had adjustments in mind as they never figured out a way to contain Brown in any meaningful way. Tip the cap, begrudgingly, and move on.
- OK, the real news, AD is returning in roughly two weeks should everything proceed positively between now and then. Let’s assume a couple of things for the time being:
-He’ll play on a minutes restriction to start and ramp up from there based on performance.
-He’ll start and close games.
-He’ll primarily play the 4 in order to save that kind of wear and tear for the playoffs.
That means one of Gasol, Drummond and Harrell will likely be on the floor at all times. There are of course in-game situations that would put them all on the bench and slide AD to the 5 but that means he’ll be guarding bulky threes or slight fours. That’s fine. But I would imagine that in an effort to have him be as ready as possible for the playoffs they’ll try to conserve his minutes at the 5 to as low as humanly possible. I also am of the opinion that he’ll start out on a minutes restriction and ramp up from there. Probably 20-25 mpg to begin with. That means we’ll still be asking a lot of the trio listed above to fill those minutes. If Vogel does a good job monitoring said minutes we’ll likely see AD to start the game, for a few minutes to close the first half. That leaves a large chunk of time to fill. How those minutes get distributed is going to be interesting. - What does this mean for the rest of the team? In my mind it means fewer minutes for Wes Matthews who has been a small ball 4 for us of late and of course Marc Gasol and Harrell. Gasol is already playing in an emergency capacity at this point and Harrell would primarily back him up and absorb some AD minutes along with Kuzma. Morris would be pushed back to the bench again where he struggled for most of the season. One would hope his aggressive and more consistent play wouldn’t take a big hit.
- The Marc Gasol question. In my mind Drummond is the better athlete and has the potential to be the better defender and interior presence the team has a need for. I am also of the opinion that Gasol is a better fit in our OG starting line up. This notion, of course, is wholly speculative. We haven’t seen Drummond play with either James or Davis for a single minute yet. But the idea that most defenses will pack the paint and be content with us shooting strictly from the outside does not seem farfetched to me. In fact it feels predetermined that exact strategy will be deployed against us on a pretty regular basis. If that’s the case then I can see a role for Gasol akin to what McGee did last season. Start the halves, sit the rest barring foul trouble/incredible game.
- Regarding Wes Matthews. Watching Wes this season struggle against his own body more than anything else has been hard. Injuries like the one he suffered are, traditionally, extremely difficult to come back 100% from. I wish we could take his defensive chops and gift them to THT or Ben McLemore because he can still compete at a high level on D. he has a solid foundation, stronger than he looks and understands defensive positioning. But his shot has never been what it was prior to the Achilles. On offense, based on accuracy and skillset, there are better options for our team. On defense he has a role but I think it’ll be as a spot-defender in late game situations. Yeah, he’s had a couple of hot games where his shot was falling but by and large those have been the outlier and not the norm. Wes is a proud athlete and has put a lot of work in but watching him this season makes me hesitate to sign guys with grievous injuries who were great in the past to large role type of contracts. That includes one of my favorite players one Boogie Cousins and frequent trade target by LakerTom Victor Oladipo. Is it possible they figure something out nd discover a way to make their game work, again? Sure, it’s happened before. But they don’t need to do it in a Laker uniform.
I realize this will drop during the Utah game but them’s the breaks for a working man such as myself. Enjoy the game today, Lakerholics.
Like LeBron and AD, better late than never. Things looking up for Lakers. Great run by end-of-the-bench squad. Good stuff about how LeBron and AD returning are going to cause dramatic changes in the rotations. I agree there are matchups where Marc could be key. Was great to see him play and shoot very well. That could be key down the road.