The Bench Unit
If the first unit shakes out the way I described on the last slide then it’s clear that DeMarcus Cousins and Kyle Kuzma will be the first two big’s off the bench. This means Jared Dudley will fill the role of backup small forward for the Lakers, because there aren’t any players left on the roster who have the size to play the 3.
With that said, the Lakers have three point guards in Rajon Rondo, Alex Caruso, and Quinn Cook, who could all end up becoming the backup point guard next season.
There are also two players-Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Troy Daniels, who are going to vie for the backup shooting guard position.
Let’s start with backup point guard.
Defending the point of attack is incredibly important, so here are the three candidate’s defensive metrics:
Alex Caruso:
- He held his assignment to -7.4% worse than their average (first in the NBA among all guards who played at least 20 games last season).
- 102.4 defensive rating (14th among all guards in the NBA who played at least 20 games last season).
Rajon Rondo:
- He allowed his assignments to shoot 3.9% higher than their average (156th in the NBA among all guards who played at least 20 games last season).
- 113.3 defensive rating (184th in the NBA among all guards who played at least 20 games last season
Quinn Cook:
- He allowed his assignments to shoot 7% higher than their average (the 6th worst mark in the NBA among all guards who played at least 20 games last season).
- 112.1 defensive rating (176th in the NBA among all guards who played at least 20 games last season).
All of the defensive metrics favor Alex Caruso over Rondo and Cook. Caruso, at 6-5 is tall enough to bother opposing point guards at all levels of the floor. He also fights through screens harder than any other player in the league and he has surprising side-to-side speed, which allows him to stay in front of the plethora of speedy point guards throughout the association.
Lakers fans who are in favor of playing Rajon Rondo over Alex Caruso make the argument that the Purple and Gold need Rondo’s great playmaking ability in the lineup. However, a deep dive into the numbers show that Caruso was a very good playmaker in his own right last year.
Alex Caruso averaged 1.15 points per possession out of isolation sets last season, which was in the 94th percentile. He also had an assist percentage just south of 20, a fine number for any backup point guard in the NBA.
Other Lakers fans will argue that Quinn Cook’s floor spacing ability is extremely valuable for the Lakers next season, but Alex Caruso shot nearly 10 percentage points better than Cook from beyond the arc throughout last year.
Alex Caruso’s superior defense, great isolation skills, great outside stroke, and adequate passing ability make him the best option to play the majority of the backup point guard minutes next year.
Onto the backup shooting guard battle between KCP and Troy Daniels.
Neither player played great last season. Both were sieves on defense and they don’t bring much to the table on offense outside of shooting threes.
With that said, KCP gets the nod over Daniels, because he has all the tools necessary to be a good 3-and-D player for the Lakers.
Caldwell-Pope stands at 6-5, 205 pounds, which gives him the size and strength to be able to handle other opposing shooting guards on defense. On offense he only shot 34.7% from distance last year, but he hit 87% of his free throws during the 2018-2019 season, which shows that he has a pure shooting stroke.
Lakers fans have to hope that KCP, at age 25, will put everything together next season as he enters his prime.
Here’s what the bench unit should look like next season:
- Alex Caruso
- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
- Jared Dudley
- Kyle Kuzma
- DeMarcus Cousins