Podcast: Josh Hart starting says a lot about Luke Walton and the Lakers

As we’ve spoken about a ton to this point during the Los Angeles Lakers season (and before, frankly), how Luke Walton navigates the politics of the organization is going to be really telling to those who wonder about his standing within the franchise. What we saw Wednesday night should not be ignored.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has been thoroughly passed up by Josh Hart. There were almost zero explanations as to why he should start over the younger Hart at this point. And this isn’t even a new development, either. It’s looked this way for a while. Still, I wasn’t positive that we’d see a change right away because of KCP’s relationship with LeBron James.

So the fact that Walton was able to make that change in the fourth game of the season is worth noting. On today’s Locked on Lakers, I explain why.

From there, I briefly talk about Lance Stephenson showing out against the Phoenix Suns without necessarily outstepping the role he’ll need to play if he wants to fit in the rotation.

In the second segment, I discuss what we’ve seen from Kyle Kuzma with Brandon Ingram out and how I would prefer to see the rotation come together when the latter comes back from his four-game suspension. It might be kind of uncomfortable, but there are ways to make it work.

Finally, I finish by taking a look at how Lonzo Ball has looked as a starter and whether we’ve seen enough for him to supplant Rajon Rondo in that role. Once again, it’s complicated, and might come down to how things go as the Lakers take on the Denver Nuggets Thursday night.

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 to either “The Lake Show” or “Locked on Lakers” on iTunes.