With the Mark Williams trade fiasco now (mostly) in the past, the Los Angeles Lakers can move forward with life in the Luka Doncic era. However, there is no guarantee that they made the right decision in failing Williams' physical and choosing not to bring him on board. If you want evidence, look no further than Wednesday night's loss to the Utah Jazz.
After Mark Williams was sent back to the Charlotte Hornets, the Lakers suddenly wound up without their starting center of the future and without that lob threat that Doncic loves to play with so much. The front office clearly did not feel comfortable having to lean so heavily into playing Jaxson Hayes at center for the rest of the season, so they went out and signed Alex Len.
His Lakers debut on Wednesday was disappointing to put it lightly. JJ Redick ended up playing Len for 22 minutes, rolling with him for most of the second half while keeping Hayes on the bench. LA was outscored by nine points for the game while Len was on the floor, and he was held to just four points.
ROUGH first crack with the Lakers for Len. Some grace probably deserved because he just met the team yesterday, but the Lakers have had just no interior presence with him on the court tonight https://t.co/u8HqkbBpKS
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) February 13, 2025
Alex Len was a big disappointment in Lakers debut
It was far from an ideal debut for LA's new big man. Redick wasn't quite as harsh on Len in his postgame press conference as a lot of fans are likely to be. "I thought he was fine," Redick said. "It feels like there's been a lot of that this year, where we've had to put guys in tough spots. We've had to put our two-way guys in tough spots, we had to put Alex in a tough spot. He was fine."
There is certainly something to be said for the timing of Len's first game as a Laker. He was just signed to the team on Tuesday, and suited up for 22 minutes a day later. He probably has not even had time to remember where his locker is located in Crypto.com Arena yet, so it is understandable for him to have a rough outing.
But with that in mind, you would think that this kind of performance may make the Lakers think twice, if just for a moment, about rescinding the Mark Williams trade. Len has not played more than 10 minutes per game in an NBA season since 2021-22, and he is frankly not a starting center-caliber player. Williams may have had some health concerns, but the Lakers' current center situation is not exactly looking promising.