While player movement has slowed down significantly in free agency, the Los Angeles Lakers are one of the teams that still has work to do having only made two new additions. Lakers legend and former coach Byron Scott has been keeping tabs on how the roster is shaping up, identifying the team’s defense as something that is lacking.
As it stands, L.A.’s starting lineup lacks defensive resistance, with Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Deandre Ayton all not being known for that side of the ball. LeBron James can be a productive defender, but that cannot be expected for a full 82-game season at 40-years-old.
The bench depth also remains an issue as the Lakers lacked any kind of production during the playoffs last season. Scott is on the same page that more moves need to happen when discussing the Lakers’ roster, via Grant Mona of Sports Illustrated:
“They still got some work to do. Obviously I bleed purple and gold, so I want the best for this organization and the franchise. Happy for Jeanie and the Buss family making the biggest deal in sports history selling the Lakers for $10 billion,” Scott said.
“But LeBron and Luka, they still need some more help – Austin’s [Reaves] been great, every year he gets better. We still need a little bit more length, size, athleticism, and need some more scoring off that bench,” he continued.
Unfortunately, in today’s NBA, teams cannot rely solely on their stars to take them to the promised land. There needs to be at least eight quality players that can play meaningful minutes in a playoff series.
Scott is dead on with the Lakers’ needs to round out this roster; they need more athleticism and defense on the wing. Ideally, bringing in a meaningful 3-and-D guard off the bench and even another backup center would not hurt.
Unfortunately, it will be tough for the Lakers to make significant improvements with the free agent class getting thin and them having only one tradeable first-round pick. However, possessing expiring contracts is valuable with this new CBA and general manager Rob Pelinka has three with positive to neutral value in Gabe Vincent, Maxi Kleber and Hachimura.
Hopefully, two of those three areas Scott highlighted are handled by the time training camp comes around so the Lakers can vault themselves into legit contender status.
Byron Scott previously praised Rob Pelinka for work building Lakers roster
Through Rob Pelinka’s tenure as general manager, he’s had plenty of high and low moments. It’s truly hard to gauge who he is as an executive, but Byron Scott called for him to win Executive of the Year in 2023 following his moves to build the Lakers into a contender.
Pelinka notably traded for Luka Doncic this past season, putting his name in the mix for that award once again.
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