Lakers Star Forward Leaves Team to Deal With ‘Personal Matter’

The Los Angeles Lakers will have to develop a strategy without some of their stars. Lakers head coach Frank Vogel is being faced with a few big decisions at the moment. Anthony Davis is out due to an injury. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was injured, too. According to recent reports, another Lakers player leaves the team to handle a personal matter.

Adrian Wojnarowski and Dave McMenamin reported that Kostas Antetokounmpo won’t join his team in the upcoming period as he has returned to Greece.

We don’t have any information about Antetokounpo’s “personnal matter,” but we do know that he may return.

“Antetokounmpo has not been with the team for the duration of L.A.’s playoff run while in his home country of Greece, sources said. There’s no immediate timetable for his return, but there’s optimism that he could rejoin the team this postseason should the Lakers advance past the Phoenix Suns in their first-round Western Conference playoff series.”

The Lakers forward leaves the team in the postseason

Antetokounmpo only played in 15 games with the Lakers. He won’t step in as a replacement for Davis. The Greek native has been a lively member of the bench. He doesn’t have much playing time, but the other players love having him around. Kostas’ brothers, Giannis and Thanasis haven’t made any comments about their plan to return to Greece.

This might be an opportunity for Markieff Morris to get more playing time. He had a bigger role in last year’s playoff run, but hasn’t played a lot this season.

Losing Davis was a big blow for the Lakers, and Vogel is well aware of this. The team will miss his scoring and his excellent offense.

“He’s one of those players that dominates both sides of the ball,” Vogel said. “We’re going to miss his scoring and everything he brings to the table offensively. But what he is defensively is deeply going to be missed with his ability to guard on the perimeter. We’ll definitely miss him on both sides of the ball if he does not play.”