Los Angeles Lakers should make Johnathan Williams their new backup center

The Los Angeles Lakers may have found an answer to their center woes in the form of Johnathan Williams.

With arguably their second and third best players serving suspensions, the Los Angeles Lakers were short-handed on Oct. 22 against the San Antonio Spurs. Even though they lost, the suspensions may have created an opportunity for an unsung hero who can really help this team moving forward.

Like most, if not all of you, when the Lakers‘ roster was set a couple months ago, I took stock of who they had and made some educated guesses as to how this season may turn out.

Contrary to what many national pundits were saying, it seemed like the Lakers might be a decent 3-point shooting team, as they have some good, decent outside shooters. Against San Antonio, they shot about 36 percent from the land of plenty. Kyle Kuzma was 4-for-10, Josh Hart was 4-for-7 and even Lonzo Ball was 3-for-7 from out there.

Their fast break has me made feel like I’ve climbed into the way back machine and taken a trip to the year 1982. In the opener vs. Portland, the Lakers scored 34 points on the break, then 22 against Houston and an awesome 41 points against the Spurs. It’s almost gnarly to see how aggressive and efficient the Lakers have been in with their transition game.

But we also were concerned about the Lakers’ lack of defense and rebounding. Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart have the potential to become good defenders. However, this team lacks size, rim protection and widebodied bigs who will box out, be physical and think that every rebound and loose ball belonged to them.

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When JaVale McGee has been on the court, he’s provided the Lakers with an interior presence they’ve desperately needed. He’s blocked shots, changed shots, grabbed defensive rebounds, ran the floor for easy baskets and given them second shot opportunities.

But when he’s been resting, the purple and gold’s lack of size, physicality and toughness has been exposed. That has rendered the Lakers unable to prevent their opponents from scoring in the paint.

Enter Johnathan Williams.

With Brandon Ingram and Rajon Rondo serving suspensions for their momentary stupidity in Saturday’s loss to the Rockets, the Lakers were shorthanded, both in the backcourt and up front. They needed someone to give Lebron James, Kuzma and McGee enough rest.

Williams, almost out of nowhere, played 14 minutes and scored eight points (on 4-for-5 shooting), grabbed four rebounds and blocked three shots.

Beyond the numbers, he brought a set of intangibles that this team sorely lacks: physicality, toughness, the willingness to box out and rip rebounds out of an opponent’s hands, not to mention good old-fashioned all-around hustle.

Standing 6-foot-9 and weighing almost 230 lbs, he was an undrafted rookie who was signed by the Lakers in late July to round out their training camp roster. During the preseason, he showed the aforementioned traits but was waived a day after their final exhibition game against the Warriors. However, just this past Friday the team reacquired him on a two-way contract.

After what he showed last night against the Spurs, head coach Luke Walton should make him the team’s second-string center.

McGee can only play about 20-25 minutes a game due to asthma. Lebron James can play the 5 when the team goes small and the other team also has a small lineup on the court. We need to forget about all this Kyle-Kuzma-at-the-5 nonsense because that’s what it is. As good a player as he is, he’s totally out of his element when forced to play the pivot.

All Williams needs is about 10-15 minutes a game at center. Let him throw his weight around, be as physical as the rules will allow, grab rebounds at both ends, hustle to block shots, fill lanes in transition and above all send a message to the other team that the Lakers aren’t soft. The worst case scenario is that he’ll draw a bunch of quick fouls, but in the interim, he’ll at least do his job in 4-7 minute spurts per half.

We keep hearing people complaining that today’s NBA is soft, that no one plays defense anymore, that the league won’t even let anyone play defense anymore, that it’s too easy to score. That’s a bunch of balderdash. Defense, hustle, effort, toughness and the like will never go out of style.

This Lakers team, no matter how well they recreate Showtime, needs some of that. Their squads in the 1980s had henchmen like Kurt Rambis, A.C. Green and Mychal Thompson. Big men who weren’t that talented but did the dirty work that helped the purple and gold evolve into arguably the greatest team in NBA history by mid-decade.

So coach Luke Walton, if you’re reading this, let Johnathan Williams play.