Los Angeles Lakers: Bench the veterans, play the healthy youth

The Los Angeles Lakers’ playoff hopes are essentially over, which means it’s time to put an end to the meme team and play the healthy youth.

Sometimes things don’t go according to plan. Whether it’s a faulty plan from the start or a result of injuries, everything falling in place as you expected is a tough task. A combination of both leads to failure and embarrassment, something attached to this season’s Los Angeles Lakers.

The Lakers are 30-35 and 6.5 games adrift of the 7 and 8-seeds in the Western Conference after their loss to the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night. They’ve lost four games in a row, are 2-8 in their last 10 and have fallen to 11th in the West. Fresh injuries to Kyle Kuzma and Brandon Ingram have seen them join fellow young core member Lonzo Ball on the sidelines, giving Luke Walton very little to work with while playing a tough schedule in a long shot playoff battle.

Is this recent slide disappointing? Yes. Were there roster faults that everybody pointed out before the season started? Yup. Did injuries play a massive role in their season unwinding? Very much so. They were 20-14 before LeBron James tweaked his groin and missed 18 games, and are 18-12 when LeBron, Lonzo and Ingram play together. But all teams go through injuries and it’s not the end all, be all for this team’s shortcomings.

No matter how you split up the blame among coaching, the front office, chemistry and injury problems, the Los Angeles Lakers’ season is done. They’re not making the playoffs. They swung and missed on a midseason trade for Anthony Davis. Who knows who will be around next season with most of the roster on one-year contracts or on the trading block?

With the playoffs seemingly out of reach, it’s time to bench the meme team for the remaining 17 games and give the young players more playing time. This excessive playing time should be reserved for Ingram, Lonzo and Kuz, but with them injured with no timetables for their returns (have to think Zo is done for the season), this opens the door for other young players to receive some run.

Alex Caruso, Moritz Wagner, Isaac Bonga and Jonathan Williams aren’t household names, nor are they expected to develop into heavy rotation players for the Lakers, but it’d be nice to see them play extended minutes. These young players, especially Wagner and Bonga, are the types of players on rookie contracts that are needed when you have hopes of signing multiple players to max contracts.

It doesn’t hurt that the team plays with energy, passion and moves the ball well when they are on the floor in comparison to the veterans on the Lakers’ roster. In the Denver game, Caruso scored 15 points, dished out three assists, grabbed six rebounds and was a +1 in 29 minutes.

Wagner, whose insertion into the rotation is long overdue, scored 11 points, including two 3-pointers, in 27 minutes of action. Williams was a +2 with eight points and plenty of solid defense and energy in his 15 minutes. Bonga only played two minutes, converting two free throws for two points.

But the main word used in the previous paragraph was energy. These players bring so much vibrance to the floor and know they have to do the little things, like bring defense and effort, that the other Lakers don’t bring to the table. Yes, they’re more prone to making mistakes on defense and in other aspects of the game. But at least their effort and urgency is there, and they’re the ones consistently talking and standing up to support teammates from the bench.

Caruso should have been in the rotation all season. He’s a smart player that can defend the perimeter and does a solid job of setting up teammates. Rajon Rondo is great with his mind, but Caruso is constant energy in a bigger body that moves that ball more than Rondo. Hindsight is not the best practice, but playing hard is something undervalued across the league.

Outside of seeing what these players can do, there’s a chance the Lakers can fall into the top eight of the NBA Draft Lottery odds, which could turn into a trade asset or simply add another top-10 talent on a rookie contract.

Who knows if playing the youth over the meme team results in more losses, but if you happen to lose a couple games while LeBron trots out with the young guys, it’s not the worst thing.

The Rajon Rondo, JaVale McGee and Lance Stephenson experiment is over. They know they’re not re-signing here next season, so play the young players. At least they play with effort and seemed to invigorate LeBron when they were on the floor with together against Denver. It was more enjoyable to watch and gives them a head start on the offseason, something Lakers fans are unfortunately already thinking about.