Los Angeles Lakers: Three key improvements for the second half

Start Josh Hart over KCP at shooting guard

It’s official time to give KCP his place on the bench in the second half of the season. This, of course, is only going to happen if the Los Angeles Lakers are all-in on every part of their young core. They chose to get rid of Jordan Clarkson in terms of their young guards, so the time of a move like this is likely to happen if they want to play it smart.

Caldwell-Pope isn’t a terrible player, but the young core needs to be the young core. Josh Hart has a lot of promise, and he’s only going to get better with more time on the court with the guys that he needs to gel with the most.

Starting him will especially help when Lonzo Ball returns to the floor. This young Lakers team needs to be incredibly impressive to finish off the season if they want any hope of talking to and signing the bigger names in free agency.

Connecting the dots with the growth of Josh Hart along Ball, Kuzma, and even Ingram, the Lakers can demonstrate that they’re going to be alright without a superstar signing. I believe that this will factor into convincing George that while he’s not absolutely necessary, him coming home to play for Los Angeles would make them that much better.

It might be their biggest determining factor in free agency. If they’re not careful, this can easily play out against them.

Because if Kentavious Caldwell-Pope really wants to play somewhere else after the season ends, he’s free to walk. At that point, the Lakers are going to have to find a way to sell a superstar on the idea of coming to a team that doesn’t even have a solid starting shooting guard in the lineup at the time of them being signed.

Not to mention that LA wants to be attractive to free agents in 2019 as well. If they can demonstrate that all of their draft selections under the new front office are solid and even to the point of being worthy of starting, it will help them with that venture as well.

As of this writing, Josh Hart is averaging six points, three rebounds, and one assist so far this season with limited playing time overall.