The Lakers have been decimated by injuries at the point guard position and it doesn't look like it will get Jordan Farmar has a torn hamstring and is still a long ways from coming back, Steve Blake is currently playing with a hyper extended elbow, and worst of all, Steve Nash acknowledged on Sunday that his career might be over. Nash has had a troublesome 18 months with the Lakers, which started with a freak injury in Portland, as he broke his leg during a collision with Rookie-of-the-Year Damian Lillard. Since then, he has dealt with hamstring and back injuries and has only played in 56 out of 102 total games with the Lakers.better anytime soon.
So with Nash potentially never returning, Farmar being out for at least another 3-6 weeks and Blake not being entirely healthy, expect the Lakers to potentially pursue another point guard, via free agency or trade. But, who's realistically available?
1. Trade for Kyle Lowry.
Lowry's trade value is very tough to gauge. On one hand, he's most definitely a starting caliber point guard and would be a big upgrade for the Lakers. On the other hand, the Raptors initially acquired him by trading Gary Forbes and a 1st round pick. Seeing as how the Raptors have already traded Rudy Gay for spare parts and expiring contracts, and have indicated they may trade Lowry as well, it becomes clear Toronto is in full-tank mode, which could affect Lowry's trade value. The Lakers don't have much to trade, though Chris Kaman may be on the trading block now that Robert Sacre has taken his spot in the rotation. The Lakers can offer expiring contracts, a first round pick this year or a first round pick in 2016 or 2018, though I don't think those picks have very much value as of now. Judging by what the Raptors got for Gay, Lowry might be more affordable than initially anticipated.
2. Sign Rodrigue Beaubois
Beaubois isn't a very interesting option; he's a solid scorer and a solid defensive player. He's not too good of a shooter, indicated by his 29.3% shooting percentage from deep in the past 3 seasons, which would already limit his capacity to fit in Mike D'Antoni's system. Beaubois has only averaged 2.1 assists (4.6 per 36 minutes) so his distributing ability isn't very good for a point guard. Beaubois is also very injury prone, having only played 182 out of 328 games in his career; the Lakers need to get healthier and Beaubois wouldn't help in that aspect at all.
3. Sign D.J. Augustin
Augustin was just waived by the Toronto Raptors to make room for all of the players they acquired in the Rudy Gay deal and he was struggling with the Raptors, shooting 29% from the floor and only playing 8 minutes a game; he was worth a -0.2 Win Share before being waived. Augustin has shown solid ability prior to this year, being a career 37% 3 point shooter and owning a career .094 WS/48 with the Charlotte Bobcats and the Indiana Pacers. Augustin is solid on the defensive end, being worth a career 5.8 DWS and even better on the offensive end, accumulating a 11.5 OWS. The Lakers have been recently known to take on struggling role players and turn them into productive pieces of a productive whole, especially when it comes to bench players. Even if Augustin doesn't return to form, at the very least he would provide point guard depth, which at this time is very thin.
4. Do nothing and let Xavier Henry handle the back up point guard duties
Henry has been manning the back up point guard role since the December 1st game against the Portland Trailblazers to excellent results. Xavier is averaging 15 points, 1.5 assists and 2.2 rebounds, while being worth an outstanding +32 in +/- rating combined. The passing is leaving a bit more to be desired, but Henry is getting excellent dribble penetration and is scoring at a very high rate. We certainly don't know if this can keep up, as Henry has been a completely polarizing player this season; in the first two games of this four game stretch of playing point guard, Henry scored a career high 27 points only to come back and score 4 points the very next game. So while Henry has produced decent results, it still leaves the point guard position very thin, especially if somebody else where to go down with injury.
The best option appears to be signing D.J. Augustin, as he wouldn't cost any future picks and/or players; he can be had for cheap and he is certainly better than the alternative options (Beaubois, old friend Andrew Goudelock or Kendall Marshall), though he is worse than Lowry. I can understand if Mitch Kupchak doesn't feel the need to add another point guard with Henry lighting it up at the position, but I would like to see the Lakers take some precautions and bring another player in anyways. It can't hurt to help bolster the best bench in the league, and we can never have too much depth; don't forget last year's playoff roster that had Darius Morris and Goudelock start and play heavy minutes against the San Antonio Spurs.
1. Trade for Kyle Lowry.
Lowry's trade value is very tough to gauge. On one hand, he's most definitely a starting caliber point guard and would be a big upgrade for the Lakers. On the other hand, the Raptors initially acquired him by trading Gary Forbes and a 1st round pick. Seeing as how the Raptors have already traded Rudy Gay for spare parts and expiring contracts, and have indicated they may trade Lowry as well, it becomes clear Toronto is in full-tank mode, which could affect Lowry's trade value. The Lakers don't have much to trade, though Chris Kaman may be on the trading block now that Robert Sacre has taken his spot in the rotation. The Lakers can offer expiring contracts, a first round pick this year or a first round pick in 2016 or 2018, though I don't think those picks have very much value as of now. Judging by what the Raptors got for Gay, Lowry might be more affordable than initially anticipated.
2. Sign Rodrigue Beaubois
Beaubois isn't a very interesting option; he's a solid scorer and a solid defensive player. He's not too good of a shooter, indicated by his 29.3% shooting percentage from deep in the past 3 seasons, which would already limit his capacity to fit in Mike D'Antoni's system. Beaubois has only averaged 2.1 assists (4.6 per 36 minutes) so his distributing ability isn't very good for a point guard. Beaubois is also very injury prone, having only played 182 out of 328 games in his career; the Lakers need to get healthier and Beaubois wouldn't help in that aspect at all.
3. Sign D.J. Augustin
Augustin was just waived by the Toronto Raptors to make room for all of the players they acquired in the Rudy Gay deal and he was struggling with the Raptors, shooting 29% from the floor and only playing 8 minutes a game; he was worth a -0.2 Win Share before being waived. Augustin has shown solid ability prior to this year, being a career 37% 3 point shooter and owning a career .094 WS/48 with the Charlotte Bobcats and the Indiana Pacers. Augustin is solid on the defensive end, being worth a career 5.8 DWS and even better on the offensive end, accumulating a 11.5 OWS. The Lakers have been recently known to take on struggling role players and turn them into productive pieces of a productive whole, especially when it comes to bench players. Even if Augustin doesn't return to form, at the very least he would provide point guard depth, which at this time is very thin.
4. Do nothing and let Xavier Henry handle the back up point guard duties
Henry has been manning the back up point guard role since the December 1st game against the Portland Trailblazers to excellent results. Xavier is averaging 15 points, 1.5 assists and 2.2 rebounds, while being worth an outstanding +32 in +/- rating combined. The passing is leaving a bit more to be desired, but Henry is getting excellent dribble penetration and is scoring at a very high rate. We certainly don't know if this can keep up, as Henry has been a completely polarizing player this season; in the first two games of this four game stretch of playing point guard, Henry scored a career high 27 points only to come back and score 4 points the very next game. So while Henry has produced decent results, it still leaves the point guard position very thin, especially if somebody else where to go down with injury.
The best option appears to be signing D.J. Augustin, as he wouldn't cost any future picks and/or players; he can be had for cheap and he is certainly better than the alternative options (Beaubois, old friend Andrew Goudelock or Kendall Marshall), though he is worse than Lowry. I can understand if Mitch Kupchak doesn't feel the need to add another point guard with Henry lighting it up at the position, but I would like to see the Lakers take some precautions and bring another player in anyways. It can't hurt to help bolster the best bench in the league, and we can never have too much depth; don't forget last year's playoff roster that had Darius Morris and Goudelock start and play heavy minutes against the San Antonio Spurs.
