3 former Lakers from last year’s team that are floundering this season
By Jason Reed
2. Talen Horton-Tucker
Talen Horton-Tucker started the year off strong with the Utah Jazz but has come back down to earth since and is looking even worse than he looked when he was on the Los Angeles Lakers. There was a lot of hype for THT when he was in Los Angeles and the entire time the fanbase was probably over-hyping the second-round pick.
Trading Horton-Tucker in the offseason made a ton of sense and still makes sense to this day, even with Patrick Beverley not playing too well. While THT might have potential in the future, that potential was never going to line up with his sting on the Lakers because of his age. Might as well trade him while he still had some value.
The same problems that plagued THT when he was with the Lakers are showing up for the Utah Jazz. While he is decent defensively, he is simply far too inefficient on the offensive side of the court, making him a net-negative as a role player.
Horton-Tucker is shooting 39.3% from the field and a staggeringly low 18.5% from beyond the arc. Even with as bad as the Lakers have been from three, THT would still end up being the worst three-point shooter if he was still in LA.
His -4.5 Offensive Box Plus/Minus ranks 222nd out of 235 NBA players to play at least 100 minutes this season. This was also the case last year while he was in LA, making him one of the worst offensive players in the entire league.