Los Angeles Lakers: Avery Bradley out, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope into starting five

The Los Angeles Lakers will be without starting guard Avery Bradley against the Chicago Bulls.

The Los Angeles Lakers have had to deal with a number of injuries already this year. Kyle Kuzma just returned two games ago from his stress reaction suffered in August. Rajon Rondo has still not yet returned to the court because of a sore calf, and those are just some recent ones.

Rookie Talen Horton-Tucker didn’t play in Summer League or preseason because of a stress reaction he was dealing with prior to the 2019 NBA Draft. DeMarcus Cousins tore his ACL in August preparing for the season.

That is three expected rotation players that have already missed games this season and we are barely two weeks into the season. Now, another player will be sidelined.

Starting guard Avery Bradley was injured during Sunday evening’s game against the San Antonio Spurs. It was unfortunate timing for Bradley, as he was in the midst of his best scoring game in purple and gold, pouring in 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting.

Unfortunately, he also suffered a lower leg injury in the contest. Luckily, based on early reports, the injury did not seem to be serious. However, Bradley will still not be able to suit up tonight against the Chicago Bulls.

Bradley was announced out by the Lakers‘ official Twitter account. He will be replaced in the starting lineup by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

This is a pretty significant loss for the Lakers. While Bradley’s offense was coming along against the Spurs, it is his effort defensively that the team really needs. Bradley has been defending the opposing point guard more often than not, making for a solid backcourt combo defensively along with Danny Green.

What also helped the Lakers’ starting five was that Bradley is a capable ballhandler and initiator of the offense. With him sidelined, the ball will be in LeBron James‘ hands as the point guard even more now with the starting five.

Caldwell-Pope has earned the nod to start with his improved play in the last few games. He struggled out of the gate, which has become the norm for him in purple and gold but has gotten on track recently. He scored a season-high 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field against the Spurs.

Like Bradley, Caldwell-Pope is also a solid defender. He shouldn’t disrupt things offensively either, as he is a capable floor spacer as well. The Bulls also deploy a big starting backcourt with Tomas Satoransky and Zach LaVine, so adding another guard with some size such as Caldwell-Pope makes sense.

Hopefully, this injury isn’t very serious for Bradley and he can return to the lineup this weekend when the Lakers return back home to Los Angeles.