3 positives of the tough stretch the Los Angeles Lakers are facing
The Los Angeles Lakers bench becomes weirdly interesting
It is evident that Marc Gasol’s best game is behind him. 36 years old have caught up with him a different and merciless way than they did with LeBron James.
As soon as Andre Drummond joins the Los Angeles Lakers, he will take over the starting center spot, while Marc will be demoted to the bench.
Much interestingly, as long as AD and Bron remain out and Morris and Kuzma consequently hold on the starting role, Gasol and Harrell are the only backup big men remaining.
Strange as it might sound the paring of those two might possibly result in a combination that Frank Vogel could legitimately decide to explore, and here is why it might work.
Although Marc is not anymore the player he used to be, especially scoring-wise, his defense still remains a solid part of his game. His big presence in the middle and ability to read and move accordingly to opponents’ offense has been on display numerous time this year and a critical part of the best defensive team in the league. Also, despite his unathleticism, he somehow manages to average 1.2 blocks per game in less than 20 minutes of action.
Pairing Gasol and Harrell off the bench would allow LA to maintain that double-big-man combination that often gave them a decisive advantage over the opponents.
Their complementarity could not be more obvious.
On defense Marc would make for Trez’s shortcomings due to his lack of size, able, thanks to his physicality, to take on opposing centers. This condition might result particularly useful in a playoff matchup against Jokic and the Denver Nuggets.
On offense, their skills complement as well. Much like with AD, Marc’s ability to stretch the floor would allow him to dwell on the perimeter for screens and long-distance shots while leaving Harrell the space to operate in the paint, his specialty. Furthermore, he would probably benefit of Gasol’s passing skills, providing some good open look for his mate in the middle.
A little bit reminiscent of what his brother Pau did assisting his frontcourt partner Andrew Bynum countless times in the Kobe era.
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It might sound strange at first, but this pairing could really work and be an effective weapon off the bench for the LA Lakers. It is up to Vogel to see how eager he is to experiment with it.