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Point Guard Options For Lakers To Replace D’Angelo Russell

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https://x.com/LakerTom/status/1878810687159652396

1. Collin Sexton, Utah Jazz

A former top-10 pick in 2018, Collin Sexton has been one of the most consistent players for the Jazz this season. While primarily a starter, he has shown the ability to come off the bench and make an impact in previous years and has all of the tools to be that effective sixth man.

Sexton is averaging 18 points and 3.9 assists while shooting 43% from 3-point range. He is also an excellent athlete and fierce competitor who backs down from no one, and the Lakers could certainly use a bit of that edge.

At $18 million and with another year left on his contract, Sexton is affordable as well. Either Gabe Vincent or Jarred Vanderbilt, along with Jalen Hood-Schifino and Christian Wood, would be enough to match the salary, but he would almost certainly cost the Lakers a first-round pick with his talent and age at just 26 years old.

2. Malcolm Brogdon, Washington Wizards

3. Lonzo Ball, Chicago Bulls

A very familiar name to Lakers fans, a return to L.A. could be great for Lonzo Ball who undoubtedly fits the criteria the Lakers need in a backup point guard. Obviously, the injury concern is big for Ball, who has returned to the court after missing the last two years, but he is beginning to round into form and might be worth the risk.

Prior to the injuries, Ball had turned into one of the best two-way point guards in the league as an elite defender and creator while also greatly improving as a shooter. If he can get anywhere close to that, Ball would be the perfect addition, capable of fitting in any lineup, playing on or off the ball, and contributing to the team’s defensive identity.

Like Brogdon, Ball is also in the last year of his contract, and at $21.4 million, the Lakers would need to include both Vincent and Vanderbilt or throw in multiple filler contracts such as Hood-Schifino, Wood, Shake Milton, Jaxson Hayes, or Cam Reddish.

4. Anfernee Simons, Portland Trail Blazers

5. CJ McCollum, New Orleans Pelicans

Lakers to resume regular season against Spurs on Monday

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The Lakers look set to finally return to the court on Monday against the Spurs to resume their regular season following a nearly week-long break.

As wildfires wreaked havoc on Los Angeles, the Lakers’ games against the Hornets on Thursday and the Spurs on Saturday were postponed. However, as reported by Dave McMenamin of ESPN, the Lakers will return to the court on Monday against the Spurs to continue their regular season.

Lakers need to get serious if they’re going to go anywhere this season

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https://x.com/LakerTom/status/1878233337057386560

DALLAS — Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick said he was encouraged by his group. Anthony Davis said the team’s potential was crystallizing. LeBron James said the Lakers held each other accountable and immediately applied their film work on the floor.

Those were the talking points as the Lakers, then winners of eight of their past 11 games, entered their two-game Texas road trip to Houston and Dallas on a high note. The team had just traded for Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton in a shrewd move that upgraded their size, 3-point shooting and defense without costing a first-round pick. Finney-Smith was acclimating well. Jaxson Hayes had just returned. Gabe Vincent was next.

Los Angeles was rounding into proper form roughly a month before the trade deadline.

But the Lakers return to Los Angeles early Wednesday morning with that momentum snapped. They lost 119-115 to the Rockets after one of their worst first halves of the season. They lost 118-97 to the Mavericks — playing without Luka Dončić, Kyrie Irving and Daniel Gafford — on Tuesday after one of their worst second halves of the season.

The Lakers are just 2-3 since their Dec. 29 trade. They dropped from No. 4 in the Western Conference entering their trip — the highest they had been seeded since Thanksgiving — to tied for No. 6 (20-16) in the conference. They wasted a valuable opportunity to pass Dallas (21-16) in the West standings and create distance from them with Dončić and Irving sidelined.

“I mean, it sucks, obviously, especially knowing where we were and how well we’ve been playing,” James said.

…

Nearly halfway through the season, the Lakers’ greatest consistency this season has been their inconsistency. They have won three or more games in a row three times (and more than three just once). They have lost three or more games in a row twice. The next upswing is inevitably followed by a downswing, and the cycle seemingly never ends.

The short-term upside for the Lakers, who are just 8-11 on the road, is that they return to Los Angeles for their next eight games — seven at Crypto.com Arena and one at Intuit Dome against the LA Clippers — beginning with the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday.

“We got another game in, s—, less than 48 hours,” James said. “So, we can’t really dwell on it too much. That’s the name of the game of the NBA. You see what you could’ve done better, but you got to get ready for the next opponent and we got another game coming on Thursday in our home building.”

For a group that wants to be great and compete for a championship, the Lakers don’t always play with the requisite focus and seriousness required to be such a team.

There are nights they look great, like their six-game win streak earlier in the season or their recent 8-3 stretch. Davis has played like a top-five player at times. James rebounded from one of the worst shooting stretches of his career with one of his best. Reaves has taken the leap the Lakers hoped he would last season. Max Christie has made the Lakers’ four-year, $32 million contract look like a bargain with his play over the past few weeks. They’ve been a top-10 offense and defense for almost three weeks.

But then there are other nights in which they look mediocre. Statistically, they profile more like a below-.500 team than an above-.500 one. They are just 7-14 against teams above .500 (and 13-2 against teams below .500). They’ve been outscored by 77 points on the season — the 20th-best mark in the league and worse than the 16-19 Phoenix Suns (minus-76). They have a minus-2.4 net rating — also the 20th-best mark. Those are typically harbingers for how a team is going to fare in the big picture of the season.

There will inevitably be more ups and downs for the Lakers, as tends to happen throughout an 82-game season. But at some point this season, they need to decide which team they want to be.