The Los Angeles Lakers fell short of everyone’s expectations last season and the team did not do much in the summer to sell itself to the fans. Russell Westbrook is still on the roster as the team just made marginal changes to the role players that are surrounding the big three.
The biggest change for the team is the arrival of Darvin Ham, who is replacing Frank Vogel as the head coach. While some fans might be optimistic for Ham, the Lakers have issues that are going to be really hard for any head coach to fix.
Perhaps the biggest issue is the fact that Los Angeles is sporting an incredibly unbalanced roster. On this unbalanced roster, there are players who are rather pointless, and quite frankly, are simply taking up a roster spot.
Here are the 3 players who are pointless to have on the Lakers roster:
1. Max Christie
The Los Angeles Lakers selected shooting guard Max Christie in the 2022 NBA Draft and even at the time the selection did not seem that great. While second-round picks hardly pan out to begin with, the Lakers have an eye for late-round talent and many fans were excited to see what they would do.
Instead of drafting an older player that could maybe produce right away, the Lakers took a 19-year-old that is not going to get any playing time on the team this season. He signed a fully-guaranteed two-year deal, so his spot on the roster is guaranteed.
This is not to say that Christie can’t eventually develop into a decent player but this is a team that needs to win now and can’t really waste a roster spot on someone who might become a decent rotation player in four years.