(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
The Los Angeles Lakers raved about their offseason additions, and while it may not reflect on the stat sheet, they’ve had some positive moments early in the campaign.
Christian Wood has been solid offensively, Taurean Prince has done a great job in his 3-and-D role, and Jaxson Hayes and Cam Reddish have given Darvin Ham some good minutes.
Gabe Vincent continues to struggle, and his shot isn’t falling, but it’s still early in the season.
With that in mind, James came out to applaud Hayes and Reddish for the outstanding defensive job they did in the overtime win over the Los Angeles Clippers (via Lakers Daily).
LeBron: “We wanted those guys. We wanted Jax. We wanted Cam. It doesn’t matter about the shot-making. … If you a student of the game and you watch tonight’s game, you saw the impact that Jax and Cam had on the game. If you not a student of the game, then you probably gonna be…
— Lakers Daily (@LakersDailyCom) November 2, 2023
James took a shot at Twitter trolls and the casual fans who only take a look at the score sheet and how many points a player scored and don’t actually watch games, stating that they wouldn’t have won the game without their contributions.
Basketball is a team sport, and as such, role players have a much greater impact than people realize, for better or worse.
Rob Pelinka gave the Lakers a flurry of role players that could all be featured on any given night; there are no “bottom-of-the-bench” or “borderline rotation” kind of guys.
Even so, it’s not a secret that there’s a big talent gap between other Western Conference teams and them.
With the way contending teams are built nowadays, the Lakers might need a third star to be able to compete at the highest level, and they may not have that player on their roster right now.
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