The 5 worst Lakers starters of the LeBron James era
By Jason Reed
Worst Lakers starting shooting guard of the LeBron James era: Avery Bradley
This is an interesting selection as Avery Bradley had two different stints with the Los Angeles Lakers and in the first stint, he actually played quite well. Bradley was the de facto point guard for a Lakers team that ran the offense through LeBron James and it worked nicely.
Bradley then decided that he did not want to go into the Orlando bubble and was not present with the team when it won the Larry O’Brien Trophy. After a year away from Los Angeles, Bradley rejoined the Lakers for the 2021-22 season. That is where things were truly a disaster.
Bradley started 45 games for the Lakers in the 2021-22 season and he was never really good in any of them. The one prolific two-way guard averaged 6.4 points, 2.2 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game while playing below-average defense. His 39% three-point shot was not enough to save this from being a truly awful season.
It was so bad that Bradley has not played an NBA minute since. He finished that season with a -3.6 Box Plus/Minus (0.0 is considered average). Making it even worse is the fact that it was not a small sample size. Bradley played 1,406 minutes that season; of the 272 players that played at least 1,000 minutes, Bradley ranked 262nd in BPM.
If Bradley would not have returned to the team then he would not have made this list. However, his second stint in LA was so bad that it is impossible to leave him out.