– Bench is still dangerous
One of the great strengths of the Lakers this season has been their bench. To start the season, it was Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, and Kyle Kuzma as their three-headed scoring monster. However, an injury to Larry Nance Jr. early in the season moved Kuzma into the starting rotation for a little while.
Lately, it has been Randle who has been in the starting five with Kuzma, Clarkson, and Nance coming off the bench. Whoever has been coming off the bench, it has clearly worked for the Lakers.
Now, the Lakers will no longer have Clarkson and Nance, they will be adding a great scorer in Thomas. As expected, Thomas came off the bench for the Lakers in his first game with the team, and he scored 22 points while shooting the ball efficiently.
While Frye isn’t the same caliber player Nance is at this point in their careers, not having Nance will just mean more minutes for Randle and Brook Lopez, which isn’t a bad thing. There has certainly been a bit of a logjam for minutes between those three, and moving Nance helps that situation for Lopez. The Lakers have had one of the best benches in the NBA this season, and that unit should still be very good with Thomas coming off of it.