The Los Angeles Lakers lost yet again on Tuesday night, continuing the team’s losing streak after the All-Star Break and pushing their record over the last 21 games to 6-15. Things are spiraling out of control in LA and there do not seem to be many solutions.
Head coach Frank Vogel has to scramble and make any rotation changes that could hopefully spark some momentum for LA. While a daunting task with the bad depth in LA, there is one move that Vogel can try and make.
That move is cutting Talen Horton-Tucker‘s playing time. Horton-Tucker played 33 minutes in Tuesday night’s loss against Dallas and has gotten big minutes all season. THT averages the sixth-most minutes per game (26.7). That may not be a huge number, but it needs to be slashed.
Talen Horton-Tucker simply has not been good for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Just take Tuesday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks. While plus/minus can be a flawed stat, it is not a coincidence that THT had the worst plus/minus on the entire team, checking in at -13. That was five points worse than any other player on the Lakers. The team lost by five.
LA is 17-18 this season when THT plays fewer than 25 minutes. That is not great, but it is better than the 10-16 record that the team has when he plays more than 25 minutes. The Lakers are also 1-4 when THT has played 33 or more minutes this season.
Before the trade deadline, you could make the case that the Lakers were playing THT in order to raise his trade value to entice other teams to trade for him. The problem is that he played horribly, extremely lowering his trade value. While the team wants to develop him, they still need to put the overall team success first and THT is hurting that.
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Horton-Tucker can’t shoot, which is hugely important for a guard in today’s league. His 27.7% three-point percentage is simply far too low to be productive on the offensive end. He has not been this dynamic defender that some think he is, either. THT has not been bad but he has not made up for his extremely inefficient play on the offensive end.
The slightly below-average defense with the extremely below-average offense has made THT one of the worse players statistically in the league this season. THT has posted a -3.6 Box Plus/Minus this season. There are 216 NBA players with at least 1,000 minutes played — Horton-Tucker ranks 211th in BPM.
The Lakers’ depth might be less than ideal but there are some solutions for the team to take. Wayne Ellington is someone who should be playing more than he is when healthy. Ellington is averaging just 18.9 minutes per game despite being the team’s third-best three-point shooter.
Ellington may not be the best defender but his overall two-way impact is higher than Horton-Tucker’s two-way impact. At this point, Vogel has to try something and simply surrounding LeBron James with shooters is probably the best bet.
Talen Horton-Tucker still has plenty of time to figure it out and realize his potential. He is only 21, after all. However, it is clear that he is not figuring it out this season.