The Lakers’ unbeaten start has been exciting, but there are still worrying signs that have emerged, perhaps none more so than the team’s lack of depth at center.
Kevon Looney has struggled in the opening three games of the season and hasn’t played in the second half of the last two contests. Naturally, that was a big talking point in this week’s mailbag, which included solutions for the problem either externally or internally.
Let’s dive in!
Does JJ think that Vando started the Pallisades Fires? Should
be blink twice if Reddick has stolen his dog, too? Does Vando need someone to free him from JJ like Charles and Jake got Jay Chandrasekhar away from Nutraboom?
Can we really spend a whole season with Vando and Hardy taking nearly $20 million of salary cap space like we had done with Kleber last year? — Johnny Tuttle
It’s pretty clear Kevon Looney is not going to be playable in most matchups this season and the Lakers are going to need a viable backup center.
It’s rare for trades to be made before Dec. 15, though not impossible. Still, the Lakers will likely have to look internally for the opening months of the season before most teams are willing to discuss deals.
So far, the solution has been playing Sandro Mamukelashvili at center. But there’s also been a growing call for Jarred Vanderbilt, who has been buried on the bench since the start of the preseason.
On the one hand, this is different from his usual situation. He’s not needed as a wing this time around. In theory, that means his weakness as a 3-point shooter wouldn’t be as glaring while his strengths as a rebounder could flourish. If the team is going to have five-out spacing without a traditional center, it means Vando won’t clog as much up offensively.
On the other hand, Vando’s shortcomings on that end of the floor are often summed up as an inability to hit threes. However, he also can’t finish around the rim, either. From a scoring standpoint, he’s a black hole offensively and hasn’t made any sort of gains on that end.
That remains the biggest issue for him getting playing time. Defenses are just never going to respect him offensively, which throws off the spacing on that end of the floor and negates the five-out offense they’re trying to run.
As things stand, things are working with Mamu at center and the Lakers don’t particularly need Vando to play. There is an argument for him to get a shot, and maybe it plays out a bit differently this time given the circumstances, but it’s also easy to see how the same problems causing many of the same issues again.
Everyone’s asking about finding a backup big. What options are available overseas, and more importantly, how does it work if the Lakeshow were to identify a player they wanted to sign (already knowing that they’d have to trade someone or release another player)? Is there a waiting period? If a buyout is required, is it counted against the cap? — Coops Knee Highs
It’s pretty unlikely the Lakers will sign a player overseas midseason, but it isn’t impossible. Most any player who signs in Europe who has any chance of playing in the NBA has a buyout in their contract. That buyout doesn’t count against the cap.
Having said all that, it’s unlikely the Lakers are going that route to address the issue for a number of reasons. If a player is going to Europe at this stage in their career, it’s almost always because the NBA interest is gone. There’s a reason you rarely hear about a player coming over from Europe or Asia in January and making an impact on an NBA team.
The bigs we’re talking about playing overseas who were recently in the NBA are players like Kelly Olynyk and Maxi Kleber. With all due respect as a blogger sitting in his home office, the drop in talent is quite large. Kendrick Nunn flamed out badly with the Lakers and is thriving in Europe as one of the best players. Talen Horton-Tucker is a borderline top-10 player.
There’s a career to be had for a certain level of player and I actually would encourage more players to make that jump to Europe. But it’s not a place teams find in-season upgrades.
With centers on contending teams like Jalen Duren and Joel Embiid already missing games, how urgent is the need to find and trade for another center behind Kessler and have the Lakers shown themselves to be enough of a contender that they should be be willing to overpay to beat teams like Philly and Detroit, who may have more tradable assets to work with, to the punch in order to acquire one before the market becomes even more limited?
An alternative phrasing might be, how viable is Mamu as a smallball, floor stretching, backup center instead of Looney? — SirTuppy
A backup center is so far the only glaring need through 3 games. I feel like there’s one more move they’ll need to establish themselves as true contenders, but what move is it exactly? Who are the potential targets for either move? — nesto2k
While I do think the Lakers need a backup center, it’s still too early to tell how urgent that need is. Through the opening three games, Mamu has been sufficient more often than not as a spacing five and the team is going to figure out ways to maximize those lineups as things go.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if the team is looking at potential two-way big men to potentially step in and get some spot minutes. That’s a lot easier path to find players and the team has had success with two-way signings in recent years.
As things stand, I don’t think there’s a race to get a backup big man, even with recent injuries. Neither Jalen Duren nor Joel Embiid is out long-term, though the Sixers are likely also searching for a backup big man after Ariel Hukporti’s injury.
We’ll see how things shake out in the coming weeks and months with rotations and playing time, but a couple names worth monitoring are Jericho Sims, who is not in the rotation for Milwaukee despite them wanting two second round picks for him, and Karlo Matkovic, who was linked to the Lakers previously and is on the edge of the rotation in New Orleans.
I haven’t seen anything offensively from Kessler other than lobs. He’s been awesome, but does he have any sort of post-up game or offensive moves? Is that something that you foresee the Lakers using or is he just a lob threat? — KershawsLegacy
I wouldn’t hold my breath on getting a look at the post moves of Kessler. The asks of him offensively will be very streamlined in that he needs to roll to the rim and dunk.
That’s obviously oversimplified, but they aren’t tossing him the ball on the left block and having him create a look for himself late in the clock. I do expect there to be growth with him in the short roll, which might lead to him showing off a bit of a floater or intermediate game.
Sexton has been off the ball quite a bit so far, even though he’s most effective with the ball in his hands. Is this a Redick issue, or is this a (foreseeable) fit issue playing next to two usage-heavy star creators? — Raison dBasketball
Sexton has played two basketball games alongside Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves, so I struggle to have too many takeaways from how he’s used yet.
I don’t imagine the team brought him in to be a guard just standing around the perimeter watching Luka or Austin work. At the same time, Luka and Austin are going to have the ball a lot. The opening weeks and months of the season will be the team finding the right balance between optimizing him while also keeping the ball in the hands of your best players.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
