3 Lakers who must be benched if LA is going to make the playoffs

Lakers need to bench Taurean Prince

Darvin Ham has loved Taurean Prince all season. Prince, who was a glorified role player who was released by his previous team to save money, became a staple in Ham's starting lineup as he often played over 30 minutes a night.

Ham finally came to his senses and removed Prince from the starting five in favor of Jarred Vanderbilt. After Vando got hurt, Ham actually went to Rui Hachimura to start over Prince, so he is at least showing some growth as a head coach.

All that being said, Prince is still getting decent playing time off the bench for the Lakers and that cannot be the case come April and May. Prince has been a negative for the Lakers every single time he is on the court and the team has to shrink the rotation and play its best players.

Once Vanderbilt comes back from injury there is really no reason to play Prince at all in the rotation. Even with his offensive flaws, Vando is a far better option than Prince defensively and Hachimura is miles ahead of him on the offensive end.

Cam Reddish is even healthy now, which further removes the need to play Prince any minutes. He can still log some playing time in the regular season for garbage time but once the going really gets tough, Prince's playing time needs to go.