The Los Angeles Lakers roster is not currently good enough to win the NBA Championship. Los Angeles won’t truly be in title contention until the team is able to move Russell Westbrook, preferably for Kyrie Irving. There are too many problems with Westbrook and not enough talent to overcome it.
That being said, there are players on the Lakers roster who are definitely being overlooked in the grand scheme of things. While Lakers fans certainly appreciate (almost) every player on the roster and know who is truly underrated, general NBA players are still sleeping on a handful of players.
Here are the 3 most underrated players on the Los Angeles Lakers roster:
3. Austin Reaves
General NBA fans have not yet caught on to Austin Reaves in the same way that it took time for people to catch on to Alex Caruso. Many thought that Caruso was merely a meme of a player and that he did not add actual value to the Lakers.
Those fans were obviously wrong as Caruso was one of the best defensive guards in the sport and played a massive role in the Lakers’ championship pursuit in 2020. Reaves is not quite to the level that Caruso is but he has potential and could see similar growth from an unknown undrafted player to a legitimate rotation guy.
Reaves had moments of promise last season both on the offensive and defensive end and at the very least he is someone who hustles on the defensive end and can make plays happen in that regard. He definitely has a lot more promise defensively than most of the players on the Lakers roster.
If Reaves can iron out his three-point shot and continues to play with the same high-effort intensity on both ends then he will truly prove his worth as a valuable two-way combo guard in this league.
2. Kendrick Nunn
Kendrick Nunn is the forgotten-about role player on the Los Angeles Lakers because he did not play a single game for the team last season. After suiting up in some preseason games, Nunn suffered an injury and multiple setbacks that kept him out for the entire season.
Nunn signed with the Lakers on a two-year Taxpayer MLE deal last summer and was viewed as a savvy signing by Rob Pelinka and co. He and Malik Monk were meant to be the breakout guards that gave the Lakers scoring depth off the bench last season.
Monk broke out and signed a new deal with the Sacramento Kings and it would not be surprising if Nunn did the same thing this year. After all, if he would have played last season he probably would have increased his worth and signed a new deal, like Monk. Instead, he opted into his player option.
While he certainly has holes in his game (looking at his defense), Nunn has a lot to like as well. In the 2020-21 season, he averaged 14.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 29.5 minutes per game. Better yet, he shot 38.1% from three and 93.3% from the free-throw line.
He did not get to the free-throw line all that often but he hit his shots when he did. For a team that does not have many great three-point shooters and was horrible at the charity stripe last year, that is a much-needed addition.
1. Anthony Davis
Anthony Davis is a multiple-time All-NBA player and everyone knows how special he can be. While any logical NBA fan knows that Davis is a great player, a lot have forgotten just how special he is when he is right and is actually healthy.
Yes, it is justified to be concerned with Davis’ injury history and his ability to stay healthy. I have certainly expressed those concerns myself and think that building around Davis as he gets into his 30s is an extremely risky game plan for the Lakers.
But the entire reason why the team takes that risk is because of how special he is. When Anthony Davis is right he is a top-five player in the NBA. There are not many people that can do what he does on both ends of the floor as he is a mismatch nightmare for every team.
Yet if you polled NBA fans he would likely fall out of the top 10 because of recency bias for other players as well as people simply forgetting about how good Davis truly is.
Heck, while he didn’t win Finals MVP Davis was the best player during the Lakers’ title run in 2022. Davis dominated on both ends of the court and put up the fifth-highest win-shares/48 minutes in NBA playoff history.
The 3 teams that can help the Lakers accelerate a Kyrie Irving trade
The Los Angeles Lakers are hoping that these three teams can trade for Kevin Durant and accelerate a potential Kyrie Irving trade.
This is a guy that is in the MVP conversation when he is healthy and most fans would not even put him on an All-NBA team before the 2022-23 season begins. Los Angeles Lakers fans just have to hope that he can stay healthy and prove why he is extremely underrated.