What do the Los Angeles Lakers look like when Walker Kessler is not holding down the fort at center?
JJ Redick and company got two quick answers to that question during this preseason with the new Lakers center being absent from their first couple of contests. Meaningless win-loss results aside, there have been a few constants that would encourage Los Angeles to explore their backup big man options on the trade market.
The Lakers experimented with starting Kevon Looney at the five for one of their matchups and Sandro Mamukelashvili in the other. The constants in both games: Los Angeles lost both the rebounding battle and the points in the paint head-to-head.
Thankfully for the Lakers, those are both areas in which Kessler is built to help them be much better. The young center is a dominant force on both the offensive and defensive glass. Plus, his rim protection and ability to operate as a play-finisher for Luka Doncic should help the battle in the paint.
That is all well and good, but the Lakers will inevitably face two major challenges with Kessler. That would be figuring out how they overcome his absence in the games missed, and even what they do when the Lakers center simply needs to sit for a breather. Rob Pelinka is on the hook for a handful of phone calls.
Lakers would be wise to explore their trade options before the regular season
Preseason is an imperfect sample. There will be no denying that around here. However, it is tough to completely ignore what the Lakers saw in their first two preseason games against the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors.
Looney made a quiet impact in the Kings game before showing his age against the Warriors. Mamukelashvili's greatest strengths on the court do not come in the areas where the Lakers struggled against Sacramento and Golden State.
Having added flexibility in the form of one more body for the frontcourt would not hurt. Searching for that much before the regular season starts should be a given, considering the Lakers still need to make some sort of move to finalize the roster in any case.
Whether there will be a good solution is a whole different story. A guy like Jalen Smith has been floated as a Lakers target in the lead-up to the new season, but that is far from a perfect fix by any means. Granted, this is a backup center spot we are talking about here. Perfect is a lot to ask for.
It would be pure negligence to not make those calls around the league, though. If something springs up within the Lakers' gettable price range, adding another body behind Kessler could go a long way.
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