The Lakers needed their bench to produce over the last week and they responded in a big way.
It was no secret that the Lakers’ bench was struggling at the beginning of the season. The team’s reliance on Anthony Davis and, to a lesser extent, LeBron James made it a harrowing proposition of what would happen if the pair had an off night or, even more likely, when injury started to occur.
The latter proposition presented itself last week when Rui Hachimura, Cam Reddish and Jaxson Hayes all sustained injuries. In a change from their early-season form, though, the Lakers bench stepped up in a big way.
Let’s dive into this week’s look at the rotation. As a point of reference moving forward, we’ll listen what we consider the current Lakers starting lineup, especially with how often it’s changed in the last week.
Starters: Austin Reaves, Dalton Knecht, Cam Reddish, LeBron James, Anthony Davis
It’s been a very interesting season for D’Lo. On one sense, his scoring and efficiency have both taken pretty big dips. For now, you can write that off as small sample size, especially considering how big the dips are right now.
What he hasn’t struggled with, though, is his playmaking. I also think this is one of his best seasons as a floor general and leader of the offense. He’s making sure sets are being run and, more evidently, specific guys are getting the ball at specific times.
The most evident sign of that was during Dalton Knecht’s hot streak. Russell was absolutely ensuring he Knecht got the ball in advantageous spots every time down the floor. There’s a lot of value in that, especially if it comes with D’Lo’s shooting eventually coming back around.
I think this was probably one of Gabe Vincent’s best stretches of the season. And yet, even in that span, he averaged 2.3 points on 20% shooting. His defense remains a positive, but his offense is just so bad that it’s hard to have him out there for extended stretches.
Man, what an absolute letdown he’s been.
Once Rui Hachimura returns, it’ll be interesting if Vincent remains in the rotation over someone like Max Christie.
Stepping in for Hayes, Koloko has shown a lot of promise in his minutes. Considering he’s about two weeks into playing basketball for the first time in over a year, it’s remarkable how much he’s been able to contribute so quickly.
Unfortunately, he’s pretty much a clone of Hayaes in terms of playstyle, so I’m not sure how much he’ll play when Hayes returns. But he might make it easier to part with someone like Christian Wood in a salary dump with the Lakers knowing Koloko can contribute.
After being exiled from the rotation, Max returned in style over the last week. He was thrust back into the fold in the team’s pair of games against San Antonio and New Orleans and responded well.
Even then, his shooting hasn’t been great as his splits over the last week were 36/17/75. Head coach JJ Redick really wants him to be on the floor, clearly. But that proposition is hard if he can’t regularly contribute offensively.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.
