Podcast: The Lakers center rotation is exactly the disaster doubters predicted

It’s been a little while since we opened up the mailbag, but as it’s a Monday where the Lakers aren’t coming off a game the night before, I got to dive back in to answer your questions.

Remember, the only way to guarantee your question gets answered on the air is to ask it in the form of a five-star review on iTunes.

We start today’s show by mocking my take on the Dodgers heading into the postseason. I wasn’t sure how they’d fare, and now they’re in the World Series. I remain a dummy, I guess.

When we segue to actual Lakers questions, though, the theme was pretty obvious. People are nervous about the Lakers center rotation beyond JaVale McGee (who, to his credit, has been good).

This honestly reminds me of last season, when the front office thought it was going to work out when they headed into the year with Tyler Ennis as the primary backup to Lonzo Ball. It was such a glaring hole that, when it eventually bit the Lakers in the rear, you couldn’t even try to act surprised.

There were ways to look at the roster and think that maybe certain things might work out, but thus far, nope. Michael Beasley is hardly playing. Ivica Zubac isn’t playing at all. Kyle Kuzma is very obviously not ready to log consistent minutes as a small-ball five. The signs were there that this might not work, but here we are.

Fortunately, though, I think this is an imminently fixable problem, though I thought the same about Ennis last year and he somehow finished the season still on the roster. So who knows. But in theory, because of the way basketball is played nowadays, the task of finding a serviceable big isn’t necessarily as difficult as filling other needs.

There are a ton of questions about all kinds of things, like whether Brandon Ingram could ever do enough this year to not be included in some trade talks, Jimmy Butler and the drama he stirred up, Lonzo’s added weight and plenty more.

As always, this is just a tidbit of the full context given in the show. Listen to the full discussion below and please check out old episodes, or guarantee you won’t miss any ever again by subscribing on iTunes.