Podcast: Thank goodness LeBron James is on his way back

Anthony Davis looks exhausted. In Wednesday night’s loss to the Bucks, he was thoroughly outplayed by Giannis Antetokounmpo, failed to get to the free-throw line, and once again looked hobbled for another stretch of another game. Maybe the Lakers are asking too much of him defensively to also hope that he dominates on the other end, but also, isn’t that what superstars of his talent level are supposed to be capable of?

Fortunately, the Lakers are welcoming back someone who welcomes that challenge on a more consistent basis, as LeBron James is hopefully coming back Friday night when the Lakers face off against the Celtics in Boston.

James coming back should lighten the load on Davis on both ends of the court. As soon as he gets back, James will become the only consistently above-average defender on the team apart from Davis. Given that statement, it’s totally fair that Davis would look tired. But as Alex Caruso said, some guys are just better at masking discomfort and fatigue than others.

Another thing that needs to continue to be pointed out is how little help role players give on one side of the ball or the other. Basically, anytime Frank Vogel puts in someone not named Davis or James, he has to make a choice between offense or defense. This is a fundamental failure on the part of whoever put this roster together.

So, this week, I welcomed Seth Partnow to discuss some of the places the Lakers erred this offseason, some fallacies when it comes to analytics in sports, his experience in the Milwaukee Bucks front office, his brand new book and plenty more.

You can listen to the entire episode below, and to make sure you don’t miss a single one moving forward, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts.

And for a short-form recap pod, check out Lakers Lowdown, in which Anthony Irwin recaps the previous day’s news and gets you ready for the day ahead in LakerLand, every weekday morning on the Silver Screen & Roll Podcast feed.