The Los Angeles Lakers are a team built around its two stars, LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Losing either one of them creates a major hole and that is exactly what happened when Davis was lost to a foot injury. But those absences also create opportunity and nobody has taken more advantage of that than center Thomas Bryant.
Bryant missed the start of the season with a thumb issue but has stepped into a starting role since Davis went down. While it is impossible to replace what Davis brings to the Lakers, Bryant has been outstanding as a starting center averaging 16.3 points and 9.7 rebounds in 15 games as a starter. Now with Davis set to ramp-up on-court activities and looking to return soon, a question has arisen about the Lakers frontcourt.
LeBron has said that he has envisioned a big frontcourt of himself, Davis and Bryant, and Bryant believes he and Davis could work as well. Head coach Darvin Ham agrees as according to Jovan Buha of The Athletic, he plans on trying out the three of them together:
“Absolutely. I mean the way AD is able to function out on the perimeter, we don’t want him to be too far on that side. We want him to have a happy balance. But definitely. They’re all highly skilled players – Bron, AD, and Thomas. They all can score at all three levels. They all can defend. They all can have good activity, good instincts. So yeah, that’s something we’ll definitely take a look at.”
James, Davis and a center is something that worked in the past for the Lakers. The 2020 championship season came with JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard playing plenty of minutes next to them, and the duo also had success next to Marc Gasol the following year.
As Ham noted, the most important thing with that frontcourt will be balance. Davis is capable of playing out on the perimeter, but he was enjoying his best run by operating almost exclusively in the paint and the Lakers can’t afford for him to stray too far from that. Likewise, Bryant is a capable perimeter shooter but has thrived as a rim runner finishing inside and LeBron, of course, is at his best when attacking the rim.
All three players are skilled and intelligent enough to make this work on both ends of the court and if they can get that to click, the Lakers will be an extremely difficult team to deal with inside.
Thomas Bryant believes Lakers are ‘trending in the right direction’
Injuries have once again made life difficult for the Lakers, but the team has seemingly settled the ship and with reinforcements set to return soon, Bryant likes where the Lakers are headed.
Bryant acknowledged the rough start to the season but believes the Lakers are now trending in the right direction. While the big man noted that there is still plenty for the team to work on, he likes where the Lakers are headed.
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