5 Things: Laker Win Soured by LBJ Injury

There’s no way not to frame all of this a s disappointing. Just when help arrives in the form of a higher quality roster, LeBron goes out with a serious, potentially season-ending, tendon injury. Couple that with D’Angelo Russell spraining (I guess semi-seriously based on how long he’ll be out before they even talk about bringing him back?) his ankle and some (evidently) scheduled rest for AD and you could argue the Lakers won their biggest game of the year with scrubs and role players. Rather than focus on the positives and negatives of the game I want to look at how the Lakers can maybe still prosper with LeBron out.

1. Get D-Lo back. This ship ain’t sailing at all if Russell remains out for an extended period. The Lakers desperately need his ability to make shots, drive and dish, and generally be something close to what he’s been throughout his career. Russell has plenty to play for in his next contract, either with the Lakers or elsewhere, so one hopes he’ll be back and highly motivated when he does return.
2. Get AD back and playing every game. If the doctors say “no more back-to-backs then fine. Otherwise now is the time to put up or shut up. You got the new team you wanted, you’re the second highest paid player on the roster, and you’re not even close to the playoffs. Time to build something resembling a Laker Legacy other than “I helped win the Bubble Banner” because to date that’s it. If we miss the playoffs this season AD’s Laker tenure will have a .500 next to playoff appearances. Half the time ain’t good enough, my man. The time for talk is well and done, start walking the walk or don’t be surprised to hear about the Lakers at least exploring trades for you this summer.
3. Play the right guys at the right time. This isn’t meant to be something cast in stone and molded into an unbreakable promise. It’s more of a desire to see the right amount of growth and flexibility and the ability to actually coach this team beyond what it’s appearance is. So far, and not entirely of his own doing, Darvin Ham’s coaching debut is hovering around a C- for me and threatens dipping down into the ‘D” territory by the game. A lot of that has come with, shall we say, perplexing late game choices (not to call time out, not to foul for the win when we need them desperately, and some poor rotation choices often as much due to who is available as his own learning curve). It’s time to distinguish yourself from the pile of “nice guy, players like him, not a great NBA coach”.
4. Malik Beasley needs to live up to the hype. Shooter, we need you now more than ever and with a team option looming you might be looking at MLE territory if the Lakers don’t feel compelled to pick that option up. Make no mistake, there will not be a raise coming Malik’s way. He’s either going to play up to, and hopefully above, that team option for $16, 524, 106.00 or he’ll be playing for less. Maybe a lot less. Ask Wayne Ellington and Reggie Bullock how it feels to make $16 mil for being basically just a shooter. They won’t have an answer because Reggie make 1/3 of that and Wayne ain’t in the Association. You want the rock, you need to make shots to make dollars. It’s as simple as that.
5. Jarred Vanderbilt needs to be a double/double machine. Not 8 and 7, not 9 and 9. 10 points and 10 rebounds. Minimum. It’d be great if that assist number hit 5, as well. You have to have as much impact as Zubac does for the Clippers, at the very least. Right now, for the season, he’s scoring 8.2 ppg, 7.9 rebounds, and 2.6 dimes. If all of those creep closer to what seem like to me fairly reasonable goals, Jarred will be the difference -maker the Lakers desperately need and if he keeps it up next season, or even builds on it, he’ll be in line for a solid raise.

This can be done. I’m not going to go ape shit over beating OKC with our scrubs but that was a quality win, all things considered. Need a lot more of those or LeBron should look at his options to make a full recovery, AD should at least put a surgical option to repair his foot on the table, and the Lakers will be looking elsewhere for quality tole-players. You help yourself by helping the team, time to prove it to the world you’re as great as you want to be. All we have is now. Carpe fucking diem.