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The badly short-handed Bucks are coming off a real nice road win against the struggling Atlanta Hawks and have been playing better since moving both Monroe and Carter-Williams. They are currently playing with only a 8 man rotation which includes promising rookie Rashad Vaughn, who played SF for them in the win against the Hawks. The Bucks have been disappointing all season but with moving Monroe and MCW to the bench it has improved their play and once they get more of their rotation back they should finish the year strong if they keep Monroe and MCW on the bench together.

As for our troubled Lakers, it is the second game of the 3 game road trip and while nothing changed at the deadline, Byron Scott has given the starting PG and PF roles to D'Angelo Russell and Julius Randle, much to the supreme joy of Lakers fans everywhere. Inserting Russell and Randle into the line-up to finish the season is huge for our rebuild and could be instrumental in our free agent pursuits this off-season and the next.

However, lost in the youth claiming the line-up is Nance, who said post game recently that he not only loved playing alongside Julius, but also loved being out there with Russell and his insane passes and Clarkson, whom Nance called, "Our mini Rose". He said that he really liked being out there with those guys any chance he could, which leads me to just say that I believe and hope, Nance takes over the starting center position for us. I highly doubt Kobe is ever moved to the bench so that only leaves Hibbert's spot as one Nance could take, which though not ideal at the 5, I think Nance can play 3-5 and will do all he can to win a starting role in order to play alongside Russell, Randle and Clarkson.

In any case, these final 25 games will be crucial to the future of this franchise. I look at Kupchak's recent talk with the kids, coupled with Russell and Randle overtaking the starting roles, and Byron seemingly letting the kids do their thing to finish off the season as a proving ground to see just what these kids are made of and if the front office is really letting this half of the season be Byron's try out then, how Byron manages the roster and how they finish the season. This is the progress that major free agents will look to when deciding to join this young core. Did we shed the rebuilding mode label by finishing the season strong? I think if at season's end our young core have defined their respective roles (Can Russell truly be PG and run a system? Can Randle expand his range to open up new facets to his game? Can Clarkson thrive in a 6th man role? Can Nance play out of position at a high level at either SF or C?)

Their time is now and I believe our young core knows this very well. This is their moment to show the league just what these new Lakers will do for coming years, just how attractive this team is to add significant talent to via the off season and just how quickly they can help the Lakers return to the playoffs?