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The Los Angeles Lakers have been an inconsistent team, to say the least, during the early-goings of the 2024-25 regular season. Lakers head coach JJ Redick said as much before the team’s recent loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, as per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. An argument could be made though that some of the young players on the Lakers’ roster could jump-start this team.
As a veteran team looking to compete for a championship, the Lakers don’t necessarily have an abundance of young players on their roster. All of their key rotation guys are veterans who have multiple years of NBA experience.
But if those veteran players aren’t putting up consistent production on a game to game basis, then maybe a little change is in order.
With the Lakers’ injury woes in the frontcourt to Jaxson Hayes, Jarred Vanderbilt and Christian Wood, Redick has needed to play Christian Koloko, one of the few young players on the team.
The Lakers’ backcourt was short-handed during their loss to the Utah Jazz earlier this week with Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell and Cam Reddish all sidelined. That also forced Redick’s hand into playing Jalen Hood-Schifino, another young talent who has only shown glimpses of being a consistent NBA rotation player.
Simply put, a healthy Lakers’ roster doesn’t leave much room for young players. But as Redick has mentioned multiple times this season, his rotations and lineups are fluid and nothing is set in stone. There is one young player in particular whom fans have been clamoring for to get a shot, and that’s Quincy Olivari.
Quincy Olivari could be Lakers’ best young player
Undrafted out of Xavier, Olivari captured Lakers’ fans attention with his play during preseason, specially against the Milwaukee Bucks. It was a breakout game for the young guard who was facing an uphill battle to make the team’s final roster.
During that game, Olivari helped spark a Lakers’ rally, including 11 points in the fourth quarter, in a come from behind win. Across preseason, he averaged 8.8 points while shooting 52.2 percent from the field and 57.1 percent from three-point range. He stood out enough that the Lakers ended up cutting two-way contract player Colin Castleton in favor of Olivari.
He’s currently dealing with an ankle injury, but before that he was on the verge of setting the G League on fire. He had suited up in four games for South Bay as part of his two-way assignment, and had been averaging 23.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.2 steals while shooting 38.1 percent from the three-point line.
With Austin Reaves, Gabe Vincent and Jalen Hood-Schifino, Olivari is far down the line on the Lakers’ point guard depth chart. But if Reaves is sidelined for longer than expected, and Vincent and Hood-Schifino are inconsistent, then maybe Olivari should get a look. Once he is healthy that is.
Could Bronny James help the Lakers?
Like Olivari, Bronny James has been sidelined recently due to an injury. He’s played in two less games than Olivari in the G League and wasn’t anywhere near as impressive stat-wise. NBA fans have had mixed thoughts on Bronny so far, but let’s take a look at what he has shown with South Bay.
Despite the offense not quite being there (21.1 percent shooting from the field), Bronny has shown himself to be a capable ball-handler, playmaker and defender. The turnovers need to come down (3.0 assists to 3.0 turnovers), but better decision-making comes with more reps.
He’s shown flashes of being a legitimate backup point guard in an NBA rotation. He’s raw, but the skills are apparent. And quite frankly, considering Gabe Vincent’s overall play this season, he isn’t doing anything that Bronny can’t do.
Neither Bronny nor Olivari getting regular playing time seems realistic, at least not in the foreseeable future. But it is important to keep stressing that Redick has made it a point to remind people that he is very fluid with his rotations. Before the injury to Reeves, he had actually cut Vincent’s minutes. If some of the older guys continue to be inconsistent, perhaps some of the Lakers’ young players could get a shot in the rotation.
