Los Angeles Lakers: The role player that will shock the league the most

The Los Angeles Lakers “big three” consists of Anthony Davis, LeBron James (a fall off) and then Kyle Kuzma, leaving plenty of room for role players on the roster.

The Los Angeles Lakers missed out on some of the most important role-players of this past free agency period as the team was awaiting Kawhi Leonard‘s decision. With enough cap space reserved for Leonard, the Lakers were hoping for a big three that would have carved an easy path to the NBA Title.

Instead, as we all know, Leonard decided to go with the Los Angeles Clippers, who were able to finally convince him by trading for Paul George. The Lakers then had $32 million to spend on players with some of the best options off the market.

And with all things considered, the Lakers actually did a great job. The team landed a great three and D guy with title experience in Danny Green, retained JaVale McGee, who had the best season of his career as a Laker, brought in a bench three-point specialist in Quinn Cook and even added the potential of DeMarcus Cousins.

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Cousins won’t see the 2019 season because of an ACL tear but now that promise at the center position has transferred to Dwight Howard, who has secretly been one of the best centers (at least on the court) in the last half-decade.

Familiar faces were retained in Rajon Rondo, Alex Caruso and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope while Jared Dudley provides the team with more of a veteran presence. It is not any of these role players, though, that are on a fast track to shock the NBA world and have a much bigger role than anticipated.

The role player to watch out for on the Los Angeles Lakers this season is Avery Bradley.

At one point in his NBA career, Bradley was viewed as one of the best defensive guards in the league and some would say that he was even a borderline all-star. The two-time All-Defensive player was a huge role in the Isaiah Thomas-led Boston Celtics and enjoyed a four-year stretch in Boston that saw him average 15 points per game.

Much like Thomas, Bradley’s stock started to fall once he parted ways with the Celtics. He was the same Bradley in half a season with the Detroit Pistons and then was traded to the Clippers, which is when his stock really plummeted.

He played only six games with the Clippers in the 2017-2018 season and was a shell of himself, averaging 9.2 points while not playing his signature level of defense. It was alright though, there was a viable reason to point to and that was his health.

It didn’t change. Bradley averaged 8.2 points per game in 49 games with the Clippers last season, but more importantly, his defense went from being the best facet of his game to being a liability. His 116 defensive rating with the Clippers was the worst of his career while his 93 offensive rating was the second-worst mark.

Bradley then reinvented himself after being traded to the Memphis Grizzlies, although nobody seemed to notice. While his defensive rating was still high at 112, he showed noticeable improvements on the defensive end while averaging 16.1 points per game.

He went under the radar in free agency and the Los Angeles Lakers signed him over a week after free agency began.

Bradley is going to prove to be a fundamental piece of the bench for the Lakers this season, especially if he can score with the same efficiency while continuing to get his defense back to the level it was in Boston. He should be in his prime, after all, at 28 years old.

Bradley can realistically play both guard positions if needed due to LeBron’s ball-dominant ways and can absolutely be on the court late in games as a defensive option.

There are multiple defensive lineups the Lakers could throw out their late in games. The team can either run Bradley with Caldwell-Pope or Caruso in the backcourt to get that good defensive outlook against teams with good guards while playing Green at the three, LeBron at the four and Davis at the five.

The team can easily get Kyle Kuzma in there as well while maintaining a good defensive backcourt. If Bradley proves to be the best defender on the bench, which he is capable of, a lineup of Bradley, Green, LeBron, Kuzma and Davis can absolutely be closing games.

They do not need a ball-dominant guard, especially late in the game, and instead would get much more out of someone who can defend the other team’s best guard while also being an efficient three-point shooter (38.4 percent in Memphis).

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When examining the roster as a whole, Bradley might have found his best fit by signing with the Los Angeles Lakers. For that reason, I definitely would keep my eyes peeled for a breakout season from the former All-Defensive star.

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