Elephant in the room: Caruso should not be the 3rd playmaker

[Kingdibs19]

I want to preface by stating that Caruso is great and super valuable to this team but..

I can’t be the only one that feels this way. Caruso does many things well, playmaking is not one of them. Whenever Lebron and Dennis sit Caruso assumes main playmaking duties, even when THT is on the floor. THT is best when he has the ball in his hands, Caruso is best when he does not. THT is too young and passive to demand to bring up the ball. I thought Vogel would talk to Caruso about this but the same thing keeps happening all season. Is everyone too afraid to have a talk with Caruso? He seems like a level headed guy that would accept his role.

[kblo247]

The actual elephant in the room is THT not Wes should be in the floor period.

THT is a defensive sieve like young Clarkson who was and once you direct an attack or play action series his way as an opponent you get constant open 3s, lose cutters, and all because he can’t understand switches, shows, or anything.

Wes is also cooked. He is not a championship piece like Marc. He is not this mythical playoff hero like Horry or Fisher. He is not this glue where wherever he goes he wins like Danny Green. He is not a playmaker who can get up for every big game and knows every play like rondo.

The elephant in the room is that you give all the time they are wasting on those two to Kuzma, KCP, Kieff, Trez, and Dennis and you’re a better team .. they should be cut out the playoff rotation all together ... Caruso is fine in a 18 min role

[Dmagic]

YEAH CARUSO AND KCP SEEM TO BE AFFECTED BY THE LIMELIGHT AND LIME COLORED PAPER AKA THEY ARE GOOD BUT NOT MEANT TO HAVE PLAYMAKING ROLES. QUITE HONESTLY THEY **** SUCK WHEN PUT UNDER PRESSURE LMAO

[iamworthy]

The actual elephant in the room is THT not Wes should be in the floor period.

THT is a defensive sieve like young Clarkson who was and once you direct an attack or play action series his way as an opponent you get constant open 3s, lose cutters, and all because he can’t understand switches, shows, or anything.

Wes is also cooked. He is not a championship piece like Marc. He is not this mythical playoff hero like Horry or Fisher. He is not this glue where wherever he goes he wins like Danny Green. He is not a playmaker who can get up for every big game and knows every play like rondo.

The elephant in the room is that you give all the time they are wasting on those two to Kuzma, KCP, Kieff, Trez, and Dennis and you’re a better team .. they should be cut out the playoff rotation all together ... Caruso is fine in a 18 min role

There's no way I bench THT, that does more harm than good. With the lack of practice time the only real time to continue to develop THT is during games. He's in the film room with the vets but he needs court time develop. Lakers have the second best record in the league. I don't see the point of benching a 20yr old that the Lakers clearly have high hopes for. It's a win/win, develop THT while being good enough to cover up his mistakes and still win games.

[TJM217]

That's not an elephant in the room. It's pretty well known the AC's top two biggest weakness are is on ball scoring and playmaking. This shouldn't be surprising anyone.

Also agree with the above about THT. He does not know what he is doing as a help defender (pretty good on ball actually). THT needs minutes. He can't get any better without reps. When we get to the playoffs we can sit him

[kblo247]

The actual elephant in the room is THT not Wes should be in the floor period.

THT is a defensive sieve like young Clarkson who was and once you direct an attack or play action series his way as an opponent you get constant open 3s, lose cutters, and all because he can’t understand switches, shows, or anything.

Wes is also cooked. He is not a championship piece like Marc. He is not this mythical playoff hero like Horry or Fisher. He is not this glue where wherever he goes he wins like Danny Green. He is not a playmaker who can get up for every big game and knows every play like rondo.

The elephant in the room is that you give all the time they are wasting on those two to Kuzma, KCP, Kieff, Trez, and Dennis and you’re a better team .. they should be cut out the playoff rotation all together ... Caruso is fine in a 18 min role

There's no way I bench THT, that does more harm than good. With the lack of practice time the only real time to continue to develop THT is during games. He's in the film room with the vets but he needs court time develop. Lakers have the second best record in the league. I don't see the point of benching a 20yr old that the Lakers clearly have high hopes for. It's a win/win, develop THT while being good enough to cover up his mistakes and still win games.

It is the cover up his mistakes part that bugs me. He should be pulled and benched for those mistakes. Parker got benched with the Spurs. Ball in Charlotte got benched to start the year. I'm looking at him and he needs to be sat some of those times. George had a very short leash with Phil to until 2002 came. He's not correcting his team mistakes on help D. I give him credit because he corrects his man D mistakes but he will make the same misread to death on help d which is why when we were obliterated by Utah, they directed the plays his way a lot.

I can even take it if you only play one of the two, Wes or THT, but I am not feeling the play both routine when it makes the team worse. Neither are offering spacing or rebounding or great D or passing. I would also bench him to suppress his value to be honest.

I just think the team is better off giving the minutes to the others. KCP is still the guy who shot the best from three in the playoffs, and who chased Dame, Harden, and Murray. Kuzma is playing solid D and working his butt off on the glass, and no matter what people want to say about him, he was a double digit scorer last playoffs. Kieff has been a double digit guy most his career, started in the playoffs, and has been back rock solid as a starter right now when his minutes are back consistent. In those three guys you have three career double digit guys, all of them proven, all of them who took less to be in LA, and all who are better than THT or Wes. Then you have AC is beloved, makes the right plays, and started in the Finals. It ain't a question to me of when you shorten the rotation that you cut THT and Wes all the way out like Javale and Dwight

[Kilroy]

The actual 300 pound Gorilla in the room is that this team only looks good when LeBron plays defense...
The other one is that LeBron is a turnover waiting to happen right now...

Caruso as a playmaker is fine... I'm not sure where you get him as the 3rd playmaker though.... That's LeBron, Schroder, Kuzma/Gasol, Caruso/THT... When AD isn't on the floor...
Caruso is doing a great job playmaking and his shot is slightly more accurate this season... The problem is he hasn't had a consistent role all season. The lineups he plays with and the minutes he has are all over the place.
He rarely makes a bad decision with the ball and is still a defensive presence even if he's only in reg season form right now...

THT is a blossoming star in this league... He's a swiss army knife on offense and a terrific defender. Yes, he makes mistakes... But no worse than anyone else on the team including LeBron right now... I see him as our future backup PG in the short term, once he gets a little more confidence and experience. He'll also be a situational starter.

Basically, this fanbase needs to stop looking way down the bench to place blame... If there's a problem, it's probably not AC and THT...

Also, I think it's important to remember how much different this team is going to look with AD back. Roles are all going to shuffle.