Lakers Mystery: Why Is Tarik Black Not Playing?
By Hannah Kulik
The Lakers are losing out in not getting Tarik Black minutes in the rotation
Since Byron Scott was appointed head coach of the Lakers before the start of the 2014-15 season, he has made one questionable move after another in deciding who gets to play and who doesn’t. More often than not, frustrated fans are left to ponder if Scott is really clueless or rather he has a hidden agenda.
Last year, fans got a steady diet of Robert Sacre playing instead of Ed Davis, then the team’s best defender and rebounder. Ryan Kelly was given the unusual assignment of playing small forward most of the season, and while Scott likes to take credit for developing Jordan Clarkson, Clarkson may never have played at all if Ronnie Price hadn’t been injured.
This season so far, we have been forced to endure the horror of Brandon Bass trying to play center, while D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle have shuttled between starting and coming off the bench, with wild swings in playing time. A young 3-and-D player like Anthony Brown can’t get any playing time, while the Lakers plan for the future at small forward with 37-year-old Kobe Bryant, 36-year-old Metta World Peace, and the quintessential journeyman Nick Young.
Yes, Scott has made all of these questionable calls and many more, but none was any stranger than what he did when he finally realized (long after the rest of us knew) that Bass can’t play center. Instead of making the smart and obvious choice and giving Bass’ minutes to young Tarik Black, he gave them instead to Sacre!
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It says a great deal about the Lakers’ fortunes that Sacre is now in his fourth year with the club. He is a good guy, a great teammate, and a prodigious cheerleader; but as an NBA player, he has no upside and if he makes any NBA team, it is strictly as an end-of-the-bench player. This is undebatable. Sacre wasn’t even dressing for games this season. Then, Scott finally realized his experiment with Bass at center was a disaster, and not only was Sacre fitted with a uniform, he is now a part of the regular rotation!
Meanwhile, Black continues to sit on the bench and gets no playing time. He was recently sent to the D-Fenders so he wouldn’t get too rusty and scored 19 points and had 11 rebounds in his first game.
On a team that sorely lacks energy, Black is a high-energy player. With Scott as coach he was shuttled in and out of the rotation last year like everyone else, but he performed well—sometimes very well—when he did. He is not the most gifted player on the court, but he works hard at all times and has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. He is the kind of player who comes into a game, plays 12 minutes, and scores eight points while grabbing five rebounds.
Black doesn’t have great offensive skills, but is surprisingly quick at getting to the rim. He battles on the offensive boards and has a propensity for scoring around the basket. He would probably work well with Russell on the pick-and-roll, which is not working at all with slow-footed Roy Hibbert—but we won’t know if he doesn’t get a chance. On defense, Black is undersized to play center, yet he fights for rebounds and uses his quickness to his advantage.
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So far, Black has played in only eight of the Lakers’ 24 games, and hardly at all since the early part of the season. In the eight games he has appeared, he has averaged only 11 minutes per contest.
It is reported that Black is a good communicator and leader on the court at only 24 years old. Going into this season it was expected that he would be a solid contributor off the bench, but he has not gotten the chance. Scott has offered no public explanation why he is not playing. The only member of the roster who has played less is Anthony Brown who, for all intents and purposes, has not played at all.
The Lakers are 3-21 and, considering how badly they are coached and the distractions caused by Bryant’s season-long retirement celebration, it is likely they will set another franchise record this season for fewest wins no matter who plays. Hibbert is not the center of the future and neither is Sacre. That said, there is no rational reason for not giving Black a chance.
The only goal for this Lakers’ season is to find out who among Russell, Clarkson, Randle, Brown, Black, and Larry Nance Jr. are legitimate NBA players that can develop into solid contributors on a contending team. Nothing else matters but the future, and these players are the ones who will decide whether that future is bright or will be more of what we’ve seen the past three seasons.
Next: An Open Letter to the Lakers Front Office
Right now, Brown and Black are getting no playing time so we can’t tell anything about them, and even Russell, Randle and Clarkson are receiving uneven treatment. That has to end and, if Scott won’t do it, the front office needs to intervene. Black and Brown need to get playing time, at least equal to what the team is doing with Nance.
Otherwise, the Lakers will keep fumbling around without learning anything from their many mistakes.