Injuries have thrust the Lakers into a position where they’ve lost wiggle room and had to rely upon nine players in recent games.
It’s been a lot more bad than good as Luka Dončić and LeBron James have carried a pretty lackluster rotation to victories against the Grizzlies and Pelicans. It’s revealed plenty about some of the team’s rotation players and little of it is good.
So, let’s dive into some discussion on the team’s rotation sans Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Gabe Vincent in recent weeks.
Starters: Luka Dončić, LeBron James, Marcus Smart, Jake LaRavia, Deandre Ayton
Jarred Vanderbilt
One of the few positives during this stretch has been Vando. While the 3-point shot has taken a nose dive in recent games in his hot-and-cold season from range for him, he’s making enough of an impact on the defensive end and finding moments to score still that it’s been easy to continue to play him.
Jaxson Hayes
Hayes hasn’t had the highs of last year, but he also hasn’t quite the lows that he had last year as well. He’s consistently been a player who isn’t going to rebound a ton — his rebound percentage is now lower than last year — and isn’t going to block shots.
Dalton Knecht
This will likely mark the final rotation minutes for Knecht this season at the very least. He’s completely lost confidence in his shot, still doesn’t seem to know the plays and is still making the same defensive mistakes as last year.
Nick Smith Jr.
When Smith is hitting shots, he can win the Lakers games and is a very valuable player on a two-way deal. However, his role is scoring and he isn’t doing that of late. Over his last four games, he’s 4/17 from the field and 2/11 from the 3-point line.
At this point, it’s probably worth seeing if Bronny James has anything to offer in those minutes if Smith isn’t even going to score.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
