Los Angeles Lakers: Rooks Need More Playing Time
This is a message to Los Angeles Lakers head coach Byron Scott — players don’t develop on the bench.
They develop by getting quality playing time in real game situations. Ask Kobe Bryant, who airballed two potential game-winners in a playoff clincher his rookie year but learned from that experience to become one of the most clutch players of all time. You can also look at Jordan Clarkson, who has become an important player on this team mostly due to experience gained from time in the starting lineup due to injury last year.
With that said, it’s a travesty that this year’s rookies, mainly first round picks D’Angelo Russell and Larry Nance Jr., aren’t receiving the playing time they deserve.
If Scott and the Lakers organization want Russell to quickly blossom into the talent they believe he can be, playing time is the key.
Scott’s management of Russell’s minutes has been quite a topic of discussion in Lakerland as the second overall pick is only playing 24.8 minutes a game, which ranks eighth among all rookies and only sixth among those selected in the top 10. At this point, Miami Heat rookie Justise Winslow is getting more minutes coming off the bench than Russell is as a starter. His rookie year minutes per game pale in comparison to previous players drafted to be franchise point guards, such as Derrick Rose (37.0 MPG), Chris Paul (36.0 MPG) or even Kyrie Irving (30.5 MPG), the latter two both also having Scott as their head coach in their respective rookie years.
Am I saying Russell is as good as those guys were their rookie years? Well, that answer would be an inconclusive one because he hasn’t gotten anywhere near the amount of exposure and quality minutes that those guys received to show the fullness of his talents.
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Instead of fully turning the reins over to Russell and allowing him to grow from gaining experience in tough game situations, Scott and the Lakers seem to be leaning more on journeyman Lou Williams to provide those quality minutes at the point guard spot. Williams is averaging 26.3 minutes in the sixth man spot and only has 12.6 points per contest to show for it. Who’s to say Russell couldn’t be just as impactful, if not more so, with the same amount of playing time?
A look at Russell’s numbers indicate the answer to this question is yes. Just from looking at his home vs. road game splits shows that he plays 25.4 minutes per game on the road, only slightly above his season average, and has a much more effective stat line in those games (10.7 PPG, 44% field goal percentage, 42% from behind the arc, 4.4 RPG, 1.4 SPG).
If Scott and the Lakers organization want Russell to quickly blossom into the talent they believe he can be, playing time is the key.
In addition to Russell, another rookie has proved himself to be deserving of more minutes off the bench. Fellow first-round pick Larry Nance Jr. has made quite the impression in the seven games he’s played since starting the season as a reserve. In those seven games, Nance has had some pretty solid performances, most notably a 13-point game at the Orlando Magic where he was perfect from the field, and is averaging 5.o points per game with 4.1 boards per game on 55% shooting, all in just 17.7 minutes per contest.
Nance has the potential to be an outstanding hybrid forward with a consistent stroke from inside and behind the arc. He runs the floor incredibly well and has the makings of a tenacious rebounder. Plus, it can never hurt when you have the athleticism to throw down rim-rockers that bring the crowd to their feet like this one:
Ferocious jams like this are commonplace for Nance and show that he is the type of player that plays with high energy and can be a spark plug off the bench. In the few games he has played, he has proven himself to be more effective than fellow frontcourt players like Brandon Bass and Tarik Black. If Scott can up his minutes total only a little more to about 20 minutes per game, I think we’ll see the beginning of a really effective, potentially Sixth Man of the Year-worthy talent.
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It is time for this Lakers team to stop leaning on the veterans to carry the load and embrace the infusion of youth they’ve acquired the last two offseasons. Let the young boys fly.