Lakers Advised To Bench 12-Year Veteran Starter

If Rob Pelinka and Darvin Ham don’t make a change in the near future, the Los Angeles Lakers will leave the playoff race sooner than expected. Russell Westbrook ended up on the Lakers bench and he embraced his new role with the franchise. Zach Buckley from Bleacher Report believes the Lakers should bench a veteran starter.

Will Patrick Beverley agree to a bench role in his first season with the Lakers? His stats aren’t crazy, but he could be of great help from the bench. Pat Bev averages 4.6 points, 3.7 rebounds, and three assists per game with the Lakers. He goes 23.5% from the perimeter and 35% from the two-point line.

“A 27.8 shooting percentage would be alarming from three—but that’s actually Beverley’s overall conversion rate. Beyond the arc, he’s down to just 23.5 percent,” Buckley wrote. “That’s untenable. As much as the Lakers might think they need Beverley’s point-of-attack defense, they can’t afford to have him suck the air out of their attack. If he’s not spacing the floor, then he’s adding nothing on offense, which makes you wonder how he’s seeing the fifth-most floor time on the team (28.1 minutes per game).”

Patrick Beverley’s (LAL) common foul against Ivica Zubac (LAC) at 11:26 of the 2nd qtr on 11/9/22 has been upgraded to a Flagrant 1 upon league review. pic.twitter.com/slHpghkINN

— NBA Official (@NBAOfficial) November 11, 2022

Lakers veteran starter to embrace a bench role, has great respect for LeBron James

The Lakers took their risk in the offseason and got Beverley despite his issues with Russell Westbrook. He doesn’t mind playing with his rival and even insists that Westbrook is a good player. What about LeBron James? Beverley has nothing but praise for the king of basketball. LeBron is the true leader of the Lakers after all.

“We had a phenomenal practice, probably one of my best practices yesterday. You gotta give a lot of credit to LeBron. He started to get on guys the right way, and guys in the locker room responded. So, credit his leadership,” Beverley said. “Obviously, there are things that you guys don’t see in the locker room, but he was a big voice in practice yesterday, which kinda led over to our energy, and game planning, and focus for this game today.”

Pat Beverley credits LeBron's leadership and a good practice session after win over the Nets. pic.twitter.com/NmAGNbwX22

— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) November 14, 2022