Today, Lakers star James Worthy said bluntly in a show that after the trade to get Westbrook, the Lakers did not help James reduce the burden as desired, and even this season James has played more time and the task is heavier, although Westbrook's performance in the last two games has picked up, but at least from now on, the introduction of Westbrook is a very failed operation.
So, what kind of players do the Lakers need to really reduce the burden on James? On the whole, there should be good defensive ability, as well as a certain degree of organizational ability, and can also open up space, the player who can shoot three points is the most suitable, of course, do not need this player to have all the above skills, with 1 or 2 is very good. Because at this stage, these abilities are not available, or are not good enough.
In fact, there is such a player who can shoot three points, grab rebounds, and have a good pass, and can replace James to play the inside line, even cheaper than Westbrook, which is exactly what the Lakers need. There's no mistake, this guy is the Cavaliers' Kevin Love.
In an NBA regular season game that ended today, the Cavaliers beat the Pelicans 93-90 and are currently ranked 4th in the East with a record of 31 wins and 20 losses, even better than the Lakers. In this game, Love played 33 minutes off the bench, shooting 6 of 15, 3 of 8 from three-point range, and had 15 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks. It is worth mentioning that this is the ninth time that Luck has scored a double-double this season, and he has not complained about being relegated to the bench by the Cavaliers, but has helped the team with a better performance.
So far this season, Luck can average 14.1 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game, and the three-point shooting rate is as high as 40.1%, although his salary of 31.26 million yuan in 1 year still looks a bit much, but how to compare with Wei Shao, it is actually very good. More importantly, many people have hoped that the Lakers will let Wei Shao play as a substitute, but considering Wei Shao's mentality, this is almost impossible to achieve, but if the Lakers have LeFu instead of Wei Shao, then I believe that Le Fu is willing to play a substitute.
More importantly, in today's small-ball era, Love is actually a very perfect interior line, and after today's game Cavaliers coach Bickerstaff was interviewed about Kevin Love's performance: "I think he is very aggressive. A lot of the pairing tonight I think is in his favor, if you let the little player defend him, he will get the shooting opportunity. The question is simply whether he can get in, and we know what he can do in that situation. He showed that again tonight. ”
In fact, the rumors about Lefu and the Lakers have not stopped from last season to the offseason, and there have been news that Lefu is willing to come to the Lakers to play, but the Lakers at that time believed that Lefu's contract was too big, and the strength was seriously declining, and they were unwilling to trade him at a large price. Try to think that if the Lakers can exchange the chips of trading Westbrook for Love, then maybe both James and Davis will play more comfortably this season.
But now, the Cavaliers' record is getting better and better, And Luck has also expressed his willingness to continue to stay in the Lakers, and Wei Shao has almost become a player who can't be traded in the Lakers, and can only smash it in his hands, praying that Wei Shao can get better one day, but the possibility of that is really too low.