1. Patrick Beverley
The best thing Patrick Beverley has done in a Lakers’ uniform was sticking up for his teammate and getting himself suspended for three games. He demonstrated the toughness he was partly brought in for and they have been better with him off the court, so that was a win-win situation.
However, his play on the court has not gone according to plan, and Beverley looks like he is not the same player he once was. This is yet another case of a solid shooter coming to the Lakers and losing their touch like a Monstar stole their talent.
Beverley is shooting 24 percent on spot-up 3-pointers this season. There is hardly an explanation for such a harsh decline because he has never shot less than 34 percent from three in his entire career.
Another problem for Beverley is that he is not scoring enough for a shoot-first combo guard. He has started in every game he has played in and is only averaging 4.2 points per game and has not cracked double figures all season.
A big reason why Russell Westbrook was relegated to a bench role was that the fit of him and Beverley in a starting backcourt was clunky. It is already looking like the trade of Talen Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson for Beverley was a shortsighted and dumb move.
Adding Beverley this offseason is another result of the fallout of letting Alex Caruso go and signing THT to a bad contract. They tried to replace Caruso’s production as a defensive stopper with Beverley, but it looks like they traded for him a few seasons too late.
Perhaps that is why there is already a report with trade rumors surrounding Beverley ready to ship him out of Tinseltown.