5 Things: Lakers tailspin continues

We’re entering scary territory if you’re a Lakers fan. After dropping another game to the Clippers, who swept the season series against us, the Lakers fell to 6th in the western conference. Tonight’s game against Portland isn’t in the “must win” zone as we still have 4 more spots to fall before being bounced out of the playoffs entirely but if the team wants to maximize it’s playoff time with practice and prep as opposed to fighting to stay in them, winning tonight seems like a good place to start. Also…whither is LeBron James?

1. Anthony Davis injury scare #8,602. Sounds like AD is OK after a fall near the scorers table. Ankle OK, back locked up on him but he says he’s playing tonight. That’s good because we have just about 0 chance of winning without AD. Frankly the odds ain’t that great with AD based on our winning % as a team without LeBron and Schroder. If we’re going to have any chance at all Davis needs to start turning in some monster performances. He needs to play with more power and less finesse. I don’t honestly know if he has that in him at this point in this season, may just be too gassed from the compressed schedule (that he hasn’t played in for months up til recently) and the short turnaround.
2. Is there a more disappointing Laker this season than Kentavious Caldwell-Pope? In my mind, no there is not. Based on what we know he is capable of he is vastly under-performing this season. Toss in the idea that your highest paid players should be the ones you can count on to step up and I wonder what KCP has done to deserve the role he currently enjoys on this team. He’s not playing good defense let’s start with that. He finds that skill every three games or so by my count. Most nights he kind of stays in front of his man, generally drifts too far off the perimeter to close out effectively an dis good for one bone-headed blow by per game. Personally, I’m done hoping to see more from Kentavious. His head is just not in this season at all. His body shows up, he goes through the motions but the heart and the effort are not there. KCP signed a 3 year $39 million dollar extension in the offseason. He’s our 4th highest paid player and one of only 4 Lakers that makes over $10 mil. In 29 minutes he managed 6 whole field goal attempts. That’s never going to get it done and honestly makes his deal borderline untradeable this summer. Who wants a shooting guard that doesn’t shoot and doesn’t defend at a high level? Answer: nobody.
3. The 87 man rotation. I get it: this was a blowout and the scrubs of the scrubs got some burn. That’s not the real issue. The issue is I don’t think any players in that locker room really know what their role on this team is. Not anymore. I think we had some roles early on but injuries, poor play and terrible shooting from guys brought in to shoot have forced that notion to be scrapped. This is on the coaching staff and nobody else, the players don’t decide when they go into the game. We brought in or re-signed players like KCP, Wes Matthews, Ben McLemore and Markieff Morris to open the floor from the perimeter and play solid defense. ‘Kieff is shooting 30.9% from three, McLemore 36.8% (as a Laker), Matthews is at 32.6%, and even though KCP is shooting 41% he doesn’t like to shoot. It’s become absurd. Trezz is the backup center…I guess? Gasol who is here next season no longer plays in lieu of the lumbering Drummond and here we sit. Falling in the standings and looking more like a lottery team than the defending champs.
4. The question about the center position. I want to start off saying that I like Andre’ Drummond both as a player and as a person, nothing personal. The thing is we’re asking way too much of a guy who we don’t have the time to bring up to speed in a meaningful way. From a purely talent or athletics standpoint, Andre’ Drummond would make a fine center. On this team, at this point of the season and without the benefit of incorporating him into the team without James and mostly without Davis until recently it’s just not going to work. There should be no blame assigned for this: Drummond was a buyout candidate who sacrificed a lot of money to be able to play in the post season. It’s just not working. Not in a basketball sense that I can see. Start Trezz. Start Gasol. Drummond is a pro and will understand but if my gut is right I think he may never see the money he was going to be paid as Cav. Same was Schroder will regret turning down the $20 million dollar extension.
5. LeBron hurt or not? If the coach is to be believed than the league will be sending a $25,000 (or more) fine the Lakers way any day now. You can’t just rest guys, there has to be a reason even if it’s BS reason. So if there truly is no medical reason why James isn’t playing right now that means he’s just taking more of a break? That neither sounds like LeBron James or the Los Angeles Lakers. Frankly it’s inept of them to leave it hanging like that because it’ll only generate rampant speculation. COVID would be a medical reason, ankle maintenance would be a medical reason. James doesn’t just take games off so what gives, Lakers?

Gotta win this one tonight or I don’t see a way out of the play-in. Not with the schedule, our injuries and so on. No guarantee a win tonight keeps us from sliding but owning the tie-breaker against Portland could be huge. Get ‘er done. Go Lakers.