Lakers: Luke Walton’s Tanking Tactics Harmful to the Team

The Los Angeles Lakers are 20-48 and have officially embraced the tank, but do they have to resort to the lengths that they are to do it?

Recently, the organization has made some calls that really take the team out of any contention to win games. First, they traded the team’s best player, Lou Williams, to the Houston Rockets. Then they decided to shut down veterans Timofey Mozgov and Luol Deng for the remainder of the season. Now, head coach Luke Walton is tinkering with his lineup and rotation quite a bit. Supposedly, L.A. is doing this all in the name of progress. They claim to be working towards the future and for the development of the younger players on the team.

On the surface their reasoning is sound. The young players need as many minutes as possible to rack up experience and learn the game. Plus, vets like Mozgov and Deng weren’t necessarily filling up the stat sheet and leading the Lakers to any wins. Mozgov averaged 7.4 points and 4.9 rebounds in just over 20 minutes a game and Deng averaged 7.6 points and 5.3 rebounds in nearly

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27 minutes. So shutting down those two guys essentially makes sense. Especially if doing it allows L.A.’s young talent to find their way. However, a move like bringing D’Angelo Russell off of the bench is questionable. Mostly because he is one of those young players that needs to develop, and perhaps the most important player that needs to improve.

For the record, I don’t mind that L.A. is tanking. In fact, tanking now is what will benefit the Lakers the most later. But the question is, do they really need to? L.A. isn’t any good plain and simple. Even with Mozgov and Deng, who are getting a combined $136 million, earning their contracts on the floor, the Lakers don’t have much of a chance to win the vast majority of their remaining games. Also, despite Russell’s potential and proven ability to be a leader on the court, his recent ‘Shaqtin A Fool’ moment shows he still has a long way to go to be the player L.A. needs him to be.

With that being said, the Lakers would be in tank mode even while trying to win. But tanking intentionally can actually hinder their growth. Mozgov and Deng, although not the most productive, could still be veteran presences on the floor that Russell, Julius Randle and Brandon Ingram could learn from. That would make them valuable to the “development” of the team. And, playing with rotations to see what fits this late in the season seems trivial. Isn’t that part of what the preseason is for?

In the long run, getting rid of Williams for Corey Brewer and a first-round draft pick will do L.A. some good. After all, the purple and gold are in rebuilding mode. Adjusting the rotation to give Ivica Zubac more playing time and to give David Nwaba a shot makes sense. But the overall blatant tanking feels unnecessary. The end result will be good for the Lakers, yes, but they can actually compete, attempt to win games and still reach their goal; just look at the entire season. Why L.A. is tanking is clear, it’s just how obvious that’s hard to watch. Especially when trying to win could actually help the young players progress. Keeping the top-three protected pick is essential, but doing it at the expense of the talent already on the team is questionable.

Do you think the Lakers are intentionally tanking or are they truly trying to develop their young core? Is intentionally tanking the way to go or should they still focus on winning? Let us know in the comments below.