Los Angeles Lakers: 3 players who could play themselves out of LA
By Jason Reed
2. DeAndre Jordan
Yes, we are including both of the centers on the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers have not been able to fully figure out the center position as last year was a headache with Montrezl Harrell and Marc Gasol and only got worse when the team brought in Andre Drummond.
The duo of Howard and DeAndre Jordan, even though they are in the latter stages of their careers, seemed like an upgrade just because of the Xs and Os. And while there is still a lot of time for things to change, the Lakers can’t be happy with the start for the bigs.
Not only has Howard’s only contribution been a scuffle with Anthony Davis, but Jordan has not done much of anything either. He is horrible defensively, is too slow and has four points in two games. He is not good defensively and he no longer adds that scoring presence down low that he once did. He has been awful.
The real answer to the center problem in LA is Anthony Davis. So many of the team’s problems would be solved if Davis would just commit himself to being a full-time center instead of a power forward. The Lakers could play another wing instead of a slow old center and not really sacrifice any size or rebounding.
But no. Davis wants to be a four and while he is going to play more five this season in crunch time, it is still obvious that he does not want to play much five based on the fact that the Lakers had to bring in two centers molded from two decades ago.