Lonzo Ball will take over Rajon Rondo‘s starting spot while he serves his suspension, but Lakers coach Luke Walton is still deciding who will fill in for Brandon Ingram, relays Mike Trudell of NBA.com. L.A. will be shorthanded for a while after suspensions were announced yesterday for Saturday night’s fight against the Rockets. Rondo has been docked three games for his role in the incident, while Ingram will miss four.
Walton has several options to slide into the starting lineup, with Josh Hart, Kyle Kuzma and Lance Stephenson all being considered. Hart, who is second on the team in scoring at 15.5 points per game and is hitting 40% of his threes, seems like the most likely choice, Trudell writes. Ball has been playing limited minutes in the wake of offseason knee surgery, but Walton said the coaching staff will consider changing that.
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
- Warriors forward Draymond Green was critical of the short suspensions, telling Mark Medina of The San Jose Mercury News the league has a “double standard” in handing down punishments. Green suggested he would have been out longer if he had been involved and referred to his suspension in the 2016 NBA Finals. “I’m never in favor of guys losing money,” he said. “But I got suspended in the NBA Finals for attempting to punch somebody. Guys punching each other are getting two games or three games. I attempted to punch somebody, and not in the face, either.”
- Nuggets coach Mike Malone, who had plenty of experience with DeMarcus Cousins when they were together in Sacramento, thinks he will benefit from joining an established winner like the Warriors, Medina writes in a separate story. Malone calls Cousins “misunderstood” and says he was always professional in his approach to the game. “If the jump ball went up, I never had to worry about if he was going to be ready to play,” Malone said. “My challenge to him was to get him to be the best version of himself.”
- Devin Booker is thrilled that the Suns were able to add Jamal Crawford, according to Cody Cunningham of NBA.com. Phoenix signed the former Sixth Man of the Year last week to help stabilize its backcourt. “Somebody that I idolized growing up,” Booker said of Crawford. “People just all see his handles, but he’s a player… He’s a good veteran, good guy. He loves basketball. So I think we’ll relate very well.”
Lakers don’t really seem to have a plan outside of “Get LeBron!” Well they got him but the rest of the roster is constructed terribly with a mix of intriguing but unproven youngsters and volatile vets, none of which can shoot or defend.
Or maybe LeBron is the problem. That Laker team was competing against GS last season into double OT without LeBron. Problem is you got LeBron playing no defense and guys just can’t get in a rhythm because he impedes ball movement.
They are still getting used to having him on the floor with them. You have to remember that all the guys that are back from last year are what, 21, 22? It’s like MJ just jumped on the court with them suddenly.
LeBron isn’t going to gel around you, you have to gel around him. Not going to happen in a few weeks. I think they are all still trying to impress him.
Dude please don’t compare LeBron to Jordan. The Lakers would be 2-0 right now with Jordan cause he would have closed out Portland the last quarter and made it rain on the Rockets also.
Jordan was way better off the ball than LeBron. LeBron is garbage moving off the ball and is always lost on defense and his footwork was atrocious making him a garbage on ball defender. All he does is gamble on defense and does not even rotate or do a good job at switching.
The Lakers were winninng Games without him last season and even beat OKC on their home floor without him and played until double OT agains the Warriors so I don’t want to hear this garbage about the team having to adjust to him, he’s a trash leader period.
Dude, take your meds. It’s called an analogy. And comparing the outcome of 2 games to all of last season is stupid. Lakers had Randle and Lopez scoring and rebounding a lot more than anyone on the current roster not named LeBron.
So hold up the Lakers were better with Lopez and Randle than they are with LeBron? Isn’t he the so-called GOAT? He’s a bum.
Lopez? He couldn’t even get a rebound if he was under the basket by himself!
The team has to adjust to him. Your own arguments validize that, overreactive as they are.
Wow, no. LeBron isn’t someone that comes in and makes everyone else better. He comes in and takes over and micro manages. He doesn’t get the best from everyone. Look at wade on the heat, look at love on the Cavs. His Lakers are playing the exact same way his Cavs played. Players don’t need to get used to LeBron, what you see is what you get. They garbage worked in the sad east, it won’t work at all in the west.
The. Team. Has. To. Adjust. To. Him.
Like any team adjusting to any new employee. Don’t see what is hard to figure out about that, or why Lebron being involved makes it any different.
You must not remember the days of Washington Jordan.
Last year LeBron took a dreadful Cavs team to the NBA finals. This year, the same team without LeBron don’t have any realistic chance to make the POs. You can argue that LeBron does not make teammates better or even that playing in his team must be a pain in the arse, but currently he is the most determinant player in the NBA, and it’s not even close.
Dude! Lakers won some games not a majority of their games. They didnt even make the playoffs! Lebron clearly makes them better, along with the new teammates. They have played top teams in the nba to begin with. Its okay. There are 70 something odd games left to go. I see no red flags. HOU lost to the Clips. So does that mean their season is doomed as well?
Lebrons usage rate is the lowest of his career and down 5% from last year………
Why is Kuzma playing the 5 instead of Beasley or LeBron? Also, there are bigs out there in FA right now that they should look at to supplement Javale, Beasley/LeBron, and Wagner when he comes back
They should move Josh Hart into the starting lineup in place of Ingram during the suspension
Nice example of maturity.