Lakers News: One playoff team benefits much more with no Avery Bradley

Lakers news: Avery Bradley is not rejoining the team at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

There was some big Los Angeles Lakers news this week as the team and the league gears up for the season’s resumption at Disney World. June 24 was the deadline for players to opt-out of the league’s return and the Lakers had a significant name opt-out.

ESPN Adrian’s Wojnarowski reported on Tuesday night that Bradley was not going to be rejoining the team, citing his family’s health and safety as his number one priority. Bradley’s six-year-old son has struggled with respiratory illnesses before.

While it does impact the Lakers and leaves them one man down, this is absolutely the right move by Bradley. Family comes first, always. More power to Bradley and any player in the league that is not returning to Disney World.

The Lakers should be deep enough and have enough talent to stomach this loss. While it does create a new hurdle, the Lakers are still more than talented enough to win the NBA Championship.

In fact, when we really break it down, while Bradley’s impact and presence will be missed in every game, there is only one playoff team that really could capitalize on this.

Lakers news: The Houston Rockets benefit the most without Avery Bradley

The Houston Rockets are an interesting team. They practically abandoned the center position at the trade deadline, swapping Clint Capela for Robert Covington in a four-team deal. Now, the Rockets run a smaller lineup that was actually working for some time after the deal and led to a rejuvenation for Russell Westbrook, who was playing his best basketball of the year.

Because of the uniqueness of the Rockets, they can be a tough matchup to plan against. They absolutely are a team that can surprise any team in the league on any given night and emerge victorious. Heck, they beat the Lakers in their last matchup with this small lineup.

However, over seven games, the Rockets are likely going to be easier to figure out. That puzzle does get harder without Bradley, though.

Bradley was a key piece in defending the Rockets backcourt, which consists of Westbrook and James Harden. Bradley is a good isolation defender and would have helped immensely on switches on Harden while also being someone who could meet Westbrook at the top of the half-court to stop him from barreling into a wide-open lane.

That second part is especially important as that is why Westbrook was playing so well. The Rockets were really spacing out the floor and forcing teams to leave the lane open, which is where Westbrook makes his millions.

That is going to be much more difficult without Bradley and while they still have solid defensive players in Danny Green and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in the backcourt, not having Bradley and having to match someone else up against Harden or Westbrook could create some mismatches.

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LeBron James can help with Harden some but he is better suited as a help defender, not as someone who should be defending Harden in isolation. The Rockets’ floor spacing hurts Anthony Davis’ defensive impact as well, so while they can draw him out to the perimeter to defend, that is just going to accomplish Houston’s goal of clearing the lane.

No other playoff team that the Los Angeles Lakers have to face have a dynamic guard pairing like the Rockets. The Portland Trailblazers could give the Lakers some trouble in the first round but will be easier to contain than Houston as C.J. McCollum is not as dynamic as Harden or Westbrook and can be contained off-ball.

The Los Angeles Clippers’ best scorers are wing players and while not having Bradley will make it harder, the team’s main focus against the Clippers should and will be stopping the point of attack at the wings and forcing the backcourt or Ivica Zubac/Montrezl Harrell to be the ones to score.

As for the NBA Finals, the gameplan against the Milwaukee Bucks would be to clog the lane and stop Giannis, the Boston Celtics also have great wings that are the focus and the Toronto Raptors do not have an elite guard.

The Los Angeles Lakers are still the better overall team, so this Lakers news should not worry you too much.

However, if the Rockets get into the fourth or fifth seed (they are currently sixth) and win in the first round then they would play the Lakers in round two.