The Los Angeles Lakers had to undergo a facelift by necessity this past summer. Los Angeles was coming off of the most disappointing season in franchise history in which almost all of the new additions were outright bad.
To be fair, the additions that the Lakers made in the summer have not been great. The Russell Westbrook situation is still looming large over the team and the supporting cast has not been great, leading to a 1-5 record.
However, at the very least, there are players from last year’s team that are floundering on other teams, at least giving the Lakers some sort of semblance of being right. Then there is the wide collection of last year’s players that aren’t even in the league right now. That is how bad that team was.
Here are the 3 Lakers from last season that are floundering:
1. DeAndre Jordan
DeAndre Jordan was so bad for the Lakers last season that he did not even last the entire season. It quickly became clear that the Lakers were better off without him and for some reason, the Philadelphia 76ers took a chance on him. He continued to struggle there.
It really seemed like his NBA career would be over as there were several decent minimum center options to sign in free agency that were better than Jordan. Alas, the Denver Nuggets took a chance on signing Jordan to be the team’s backup center and it has not been pretty.
Jordan is averaging 5.3 points and 5.5 rebounds in 12.2 minutes per game. While that might seem decent for his playing time, anyone who has watched a Nuggets game this season has seen how slow Jordan is. He has a -1.7 Box Plus/Minus this season, which is really bad for a center.
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.
3. Malik Monk
Malik Monk was a lone bright spot for the Los Angeles Lakers last season. In a year that was full of disappointment with new faces that did not live up to the hype, Malik Monk played better than most expected and proved to be one of the best value signings in the entire NBA.
It is a double-edged sword when this happens, though, as Monk produced for the Lakers but it ultimately didn’t matter as the team missed the playoffs. His production instead mattered for his free-agent market, as he priced himself out of LA and signed with the rivaled Sacramento Kings.
While the sample size is still small, perhaps it is a good thing the Lakers did not have the cap space to spend on Monk because he has not played up to his price tag. Monk has looked more like the Charlotte version of himself than the Los Angeles version for a Kings team that has been disappointing as a whole.
Monk went from playing 28 minutes a game to 18 and with that slash in playing time his numbers have fallen as well. The former Laker is averaging 8.3 points, 3.8 assists and 2.7 rebounds per game.
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What is even worse is hit shooting numbers. Monk is shooting 34.3% from beyond the arc and 34.7% from the field as a whole. Combine that with his poor defending and Monk has been a net negative for the Kings.