The Los Angeles Lakers have had some defensive issues to start the NBA season. Also, Russell Westbrook and the lack of shooters have hurt the team’s spacing and their offense has become kind of predictable through stretches.
Rob Pelinka put together a competitive squad but the center position continues to be a bit of a headache. It’s not that they don’t have enough talent or depth there, but they lack a young player who can provide an energy boost for 35+ minutes a night.
On top of that, alternating between Dwight Howard and DeAndre Jordan has done little to help both veterans get into a rhythm. That’s why coach Frank Vogel claimed that he’ll take a game-to-game approach with his big men, giving most of the minutes to just one of them instead of staggering them on the court.
Lakers News: Frank Vogel Explains How He’ll Handle Dwight Howard And DeAndre Jordan
“We made the decision a couple games ago to—because we were trying to play both of those guys in really short minutes, is either one really able to get into a rhythm?—we made the decision to only use one of them (unless obviously we have foul trouble or what not),” Vogel said, as quoted by ClutchPoints.“It was DeAndre for a bit. I decided in the middle of the first quarter of last game that I wanted to see what Dwight could do. And it was Dwight for the rest of that game. And I do intend to start Dwight tomorrow against the Clippers. But it will be a situation we just monitor on a game-to-game basis going forward. But with the intention of really just giving those center minutes to just one player, not 2. Whether it’s DeAndre or Dwight.”
The coach added that all the members of the team were aware of the ultimate goal and that at the end of the day, they’ll be O.K. with those decisions:
“Everybody that signed on with us this year understands the bigger picture,” the coach added.“This is a team that is trying to compete for a championship, and sacrifice is going to be required at times. All of those conversations have been super healthy and well received.”
It’s still early in the season and the Lakers are only going to get healthier and better, so we wouldn’t count them out just yet if we were you guys.
