The Los Angeles Lakers showed a lack of effort, hustle and actual care in a blowout road loss to the Houston Rockets Wednesday night.
With Anthony Davis (hip) sidelined, Los Angeles fell to Houston by the score of 128-94. It was a downright disastrous all-around effort from Darvin Ham’s squad as the Lakers moved to a mediocre 3-4 on the young season.
Speaking after the game, Ham indicated that the Lakers need a “workman’s mentality” and are attempting to set the same tone.
About that?
Immediately ahead of Los Angeles’ latest loss, talk surrounded the team involving a certain former Lakers player.
An Eastern Conference executive told Sean Deveney of Heavy.com that he believes the Lakers immediately regretted losing guard Alex Caruso to the Chicago Bulls in free agency ahead of the 2021-22 season.
According to the exec, there is a belief that Los Angeles will circle around to the Bulls and show interest in trading for the defensive stalwart.
“The rumor around the Lakers was they regretted letting him go almost immediately after it happened. They knew that was a mistake. He’s not the same player now, but the Lakers are worried they don’t have enough of an edge. He could be someone who helps fix that.”
Executive on Los Angeles Lakers targeting Alex Caruso
An undrafted free agent of the Lakers back in 2017, Caruso starred for the team for four seasons. He acted the part of glue on offense and a stellar defender on the other end of the court. In his final season with the Lakers (2020-21), the guard averaged 6.4 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 2.8 APG and 1.1 SPG. He also finished with a defensive win shares of plus-2.1.
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Los Angeles Lakers targeting Alex Caruso makes sense
Regardless of the AD injury issues, no one on the trade block is going to solve that. Los Angeles will only find itself as a legitimate championship contender as long as Davis is healthy. There is nothing general manager Rob Pelinka and Co. can do about it.
On the other hand, Los Angeles’ backcourt has been a disaster class through the first seven games of the season. Other than D’Angelo Russell, nothing is working.
Austin Reaves entered Wednesday’s game shooting just 31% from three-point range on the season. He also boasted a negative defensive plus-minus. Offseason additions Cam Reddish (31% shooting) and Gabe Vincent (39% shooting) have done nothing of substance.
Los Angeles’ 34-point loss to Houston Wednesday night saw Reaves (2-of-9 shooting), Reddish (2-of-7 shooting) and Max Christie (1-of-8 shooting) struggle big time. None of the three provide much of substance on defense, either.
Caruso would change the dynamics big time. In addition to being an elite-level on-ball defender (2.6 defensive win shares last season), the veteran guard has upped his game on the other end of the court. He’s shooting 54% from the field thus far this season.
Acquiring Caruso wouldn’t be an end all for Los Angeles. However, it would give this team both the toughness and glue that its currently missing outside of LeBron James.
If Pelinka and Co. can turn a young player and multiple second-round picks into the veteran, it would certainly go a long way moving forward on the campaign.