Los Angeles Lakers: Interesting bench storylines after Rondo’s injury

Lakers bench storylines: Is Alex Caruso ready for the playoffs

With Bradley and Rondo’s absence, this will likely force Caruso into a much bigger role than planned. Understand that it is not ideal for Caruso to jump from possibly the fifth guard playing nearly 18 minutes per game to such a major role.

Rondo will be filling in for Avery Bradley as an on-ball defender with the starting five and will replace Rondo as a backup point guard in spurts.

But here’s the major problem. Everyone is hyping Alex Caruso up. That’s the storyline. Lake Show Life covered this issue earlier this season with possibly putting to much on Caruso with so much hype.

Bleacher Report and ESPN do a lot of content featuring Caruso.

Much of this is unfair to Caruso who hasn’t seen the playoffs in his career even though he will be as popular as LeBron James and Anthony Davis the further the Lakers go in the playoffs. But the fact remains that Caruso went a five-game stretch without scoring a field goal. That includes the game in the highlights where fans were chanting MVP.

Yes, the hype machine is that big.

However, it will be up to Vogel to pick and choose where Caruso fits best and for how long.

Now here’s a storyline that Lakers fans may want to know.