We’re still not quite over the Phoenix Suns apparently having the 20th best starting five in the NBA according to Bleacher Report, especially when the center position is an area they have clearly improved.
Mark Williams has his issues and we don’t want to except too much, too soon from Khaman Maluach, but when you consider the dark days of Jusuf Nurkic and company, the franchise has come a long way.
Lakers will be forced to bring in a Suns reject to shore up center position
The Los Angeles Lakers’ roster is currently full, although they have a clear need for another five. Walker Kessler has All-Star potential, but the issue there is that he struggles to stay on the court. Kevon Looney is a fine backup, but his best years with the Golden State Warriors are firmly behind him.
Which has seen the Lakers linked with both Drew Eubanks and Mason Plumlee in recent days, which is quite frankly hilarious. Despite LeBron James heading to Philadelphia, Los Angeles still doesn’t have the necessary cap space to remedy this issue properly. They clearly haven’t learned their lesson either, having brought in Deandre Ayton last season.
That went about as well as expecting, although the Washington Wizards are going to have to find that out for themselves. We’ve lived through the Eubanks/Plumlee experience, and it was not good. Eubanks is undersized for a center and although he has a ton of heart, he also routinely gets beats up on by bigger opponents. You might argue that playing 15 minutes off the bench is fine, but the Suns have been in that position before when they were trying to contend.
The time Eubanks was out there was painful, and that’s before you consider the likely injury issues of Kessler to come. Plumlee is the obvious choice between the two if you’re asking us, although even he made Nick Richards look like prime Nikola Vucevic with some of his own play. He’s got the frame no doubt and he’s a better backup, but his still set not only overlaps with Looney’s, he’s not even as good as his potential new teammate either.
Which would be fine if the Lakers weren’t trying to win around Luka Doncic. He can make any center look better, just like former Suns’ point guard Chris Paul, but that doesn’t mean he should be spending his time doing that every night.
It is funny to see the Lakers forced into the same unenviable decisions that the Suns once faced, and we all know how it is going to end as well. A couple of decent regular season moments from either Eubanks or Plumlee making way for a ton of disgruntled fans by Christmas and then exiting the rotation altogether ahead of the playoffs. We’re looking forward to the meltdown.
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