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Josh Hart has played so well that the Los Angeles Lakers might have to consider whether there are enough basketballs to go around between him and LeBron James.
That sounds ridiculous, right? Even other than James (obviously) being the better player?
The entire point of building a team is to acquire as much talent (preferably that fits together) and go from there. Yes, Hart has shown a metric ton of potential throughout Las Vegas summer league, but this idea that he’s pushed Kentavious Caldwell-Pope out of the rotation is kind of crazy.
For starters, let’s recognize where Hart is showing out. To paraphrase from the great Lou Brown, let’s see how he looks when he isn’t facing someone who’ll be bagging groceries in a couple of weeks. As promising as he’s looked, we need to know whether it will translate directly to an NBA court before we make any sweeping analysis on what to do with the roster now.
More importantly than that, however, is how many options having both KCP and Hart on the roster opens up for Luke Walton. For stretches, depending on who else is on the court, those two can probably play together. Hart’s strength allows him to slide down to the three depending on matchup and having two near-40 percent 3-point shooters alongside Lonzo Ball and LeBron James makes a ton of sense.
In today’s show I build on these points by first offering context on both players, discussing how they fit with the rest of the roster and in the NBA in general and look ahead to how they fit moving beyond this season. There is one place where Hart is noticeably more valuable, but you’ll have to listen to find out.
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.