Lakers: Why the Lakers Should Give Ryan Kelly Another Shot

The Lakers are suffering through an abysmal season and should give Ryan Kelly another look before the season’s end

Their roster is filled with elder statesmen who are well past their prime, with veterans who are career journeymen, and young players who to date have shown little or no discernible improvement. The team is equally terrible on offense and defense, and many nights they resemble more of a high school team than an NBA squad.

Given this predicament, the only important goals for the remaining 50 plus games this year are to evaluate the young talent on the roster and hope that with more experience they improve and gain a measure of consistency. One can only pray that by season’s end, there is some sign that the dark cloud is lifting and that the team is at least headed in the right direction, something that is not apparent at the moment.

There is one young player on the squad who has been all-but-forgotten. Almost no one expected or wanted him to return this season, and thus far he has seen minutes in but a handful of games. He is only 24 years old, is seven feet tall, and starred in college at basketball powerhouse Duke University. His name is Ryan Kelly.

In his rookie season two years ago, Kelly impressed at times in Mike D’Antoni’s fast-faced offense. He appeared in 59 games and started 25 of them. For the season, he made 42 percent of his shots overall and 34 percent of his three point shots. With his thin frame he was bullied on defense, but still, there was some reason to believe when the year ended that he might develop into an effective stretch four.

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Unfortunately, he regressed in his sophomore year. He reported to camp in better shape and had bulked up a bit, but he was injured early in the season and missed the first part of the year entirely.

Once he returned, he often played out of position in Byron Scott’s slow, ineffective offense, and he never found his rhythm. His season stats dipped to 34 percent overall on his shots and 29 percent on his three point attempts. One positive was that he continued to shoot free pointers at 83 percent.

After a dismal year, most fans thought that Kelly, Robert Sacre, and Nick Young would be cut or traded for draft choices last summer. Surprisingly, instead of re-signing Ed Davis, Jordan Hill, Jeremy Lin, or Wayne Ellington, the three Lakers (aside from Kobe Bryant) who returned were Kelly, Sacre and Young.

Kelly had some surprisingly strong games in the preseason, but once the regular season started he was relegated to the bench where he has remained. Sacre and Young somehow found playing time, but Kelly did not. He was recently sent to the D-League where he reminded everyone that he can play, scoring points in buckets from outside and showing good quickness getting to the rim.

Part of the problem is that Kelly’s natural position is power forward where the Lakers already have the supposed star of the future in Julius Randle, the surprise player of the year in Larry Nance, Jr., and Scott favorite Brandon Bass. Given the worse-than-expected play of Roy Hibbert, his minutes have been limited and Bass has played mostly back-up center. Meanwhile, Nance and Randle have alternated at power forward.

Kelly returned from the D-League three games ago and played sparingly in blow out losses to the Thunder and Grizzles. In the first contest, he scored 12 points in 12 minutes making five of seven shots. He did not play in the second game against the Clippers but returned and scored seven points in seven minutes against the Grizzles.