3 Lakers who won't last the entire season in LA after early struggles

Jalen Hood-Schifino

This feels a bit unfair as Jalen Hood-Schifino was hurt to start the season and has played all of one game at the time of writing this article. JHS didn't look too sharp in that game, but then again, he only got 11 minutes of playing time.

It is far too early to write JHS off and anyone doing that is silly. The guy is 11 minutes into his NBA career and to try to judge that and project the rest of his tenure in the league would be malpractice. However, it is safe to say that he hasn't produced like fans would have hoped (because of injury) as well as point out the fact that the timelines simply don't line up.

Hood-Schifino absolutely could be a very solid NBA player but that is going to take time. It may take three or even four years for the Lakers to start to see a return on their investment. Some teams can be that patient, not the Lakers.

This is a Lakers team that is gunning for the title and as a recent first-round pick, JHS is one of the team's best assets to trade. If the Lakers want to go get a role player like, say, Alex Caruso, then trading Hood-Schifino might be a requirement to entice the Chicago Bulls.

It can be a hard thing to do to trade a first-round pick and some fans may push back at the idea because the Lakers did everything they could to keep that 2023 first-round pick. But at the end of the day, there was not a trade that made sense then to trade the 17th overall pick but there could be a trade that makes sense to move JHS.