Whenever Vanderbilt or Wood are healthy & ready to play, Redick needs to bench Christie & give shooting guard minutes to Dalton Knecht. JJ also needs to move to 10-man rotation if a healthy Koloko shows he can protect rim when AD rests. Lakers need trade to open roster spots. https://t.co/Nrrep6iOnU
— LakerTom (@LakerTom) October 27, 2024
When Wood or Vando come back, Christie’s minutes should go to Knecht
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October 27, 2024 6 Comments
Max has been disappointing as Austin’s backup. Unless he starts playing a lot better, he’s likely to be the player in the current 9-man rotation who will be replace once either Vando or Wood get healthy.
In fact, there’s a good argument that Christie is the likely loser even if he were to play better. Knecht is quickly becoming destined to be the Lakers’ 6th man. Gabe is the closing point guard. And Hayes size is critical. So Vando or Wood when healthy will replace Christie.
There’s also a good argument that both Vando and Wood should get minutes during the regular season, which could easily be done by expanding to 10-man rotation. Can’t play 10 now because we’re short handed. When we get Wood and Vando back, that changes.
Finally, I’m hoping Koloko can become the backup center to protect the rim when AD sits. He would then replace Hayes in the rotation. The improvement in Harris’ game has made him a keeper for depth.
If Koloko can man the b/u center role, then the only trade we need is to get open roster spots by moving JHS, Lewis, and Reddish. Add Koloko and Lonnie Walker to main roster and go with 14 players.
If team really does sensational and is near top of West, then we move DLO and two picks for a third star. I still would love to see Lakers go after Robert Williams. He would make us an elite defensive team. Right now, we’re middle of the road. That could change once we get our three missing bigs back.
https://x.com/Trevor_Lane/status/1850599708047048969
There’s a possible future Lakers’ Universe where the starting backcourt consists of Austin Reaves and Dalton Knecht.
i agree Tom that Dalton will leap frog Max in the rotation. But Vando will be the 6th man and come in for Lebron with Rui sliding down to the 4. currently its Max with that job. I think Dalton will continue to come in for Austin, which will push Max into spot duty. As for trading 3 guys. We only have 4 2nd rounders and its hard for me to see how we could swing that in the current enviorment. best case would a team with significant injuries that Cam could help. may not need a pick. as for DLO i dont know what star we could land. A star would requre more salary then DLO alone and if you add more rotation players to the trade it weakens us in other areas. if we are playing well as a unit and our true contenders i dont see a reason to trade DLO, especially since Austin has been defending so well.
We’re probably having an argument over the semantics of 6th man, which to me is your electric scorer off the bench. I tagged Knecht as our 6th man because he’s likely to be our top scorer off the bench.
I’m hoping Vando will be equally valuable coming off the bench due to his perimeter defense. We both know his staying healthy and playing like he did before getting hurt last year would be a huge boost for us defensively.
We’re still the #5 offense and #7 net rating but have slipped to #18 defense. Winning with three important bigs in Vanderbilt, Wood, and Koloko unavailable is clearly a good sign.
https://x.com/CSmoove_Sports/status/1850379852639252594