Sasha Needs to Remain on the Bench

After the trade for Trevor Ariza, pablitocesar brought up a point I had not considered. He said losing Mo Evans is going to hurt us because it means Sasha will get a lot more playing time. Aside from the 3 pointer Sasha made, he's been terrible on the court.</p>

Take a look at his +/- differentials and Help Value points since the trade:</p>

vs. SEA -9 / HV 2 (12.6 Minutes)
vs. NJN +2 / HV 2 (14.4 Minutes)
vs. BOS +1 / HV 1 (11.3 Minutes)
vs. MIL -9 / HV 2 (13.8 Minutes)</p>

Teams are making their runs when he subs into the game and we've seen the second unit not only blow a double digit lead, but also create a double digit deficit.</p>

I couldn't help but notice JCritt sulking on the bench in the Seattle game watching Sasha make mistakes and get torched on defense. The minutes Evans played should be given to both Ariza and JCritt because they have a lot more upside than Sasha. They just need time on the court to show what they can do and figure out their role. Sasha's been given so many opportunities his entire time with the Lakers and never delivers. He's obviously not part of the long term future for this team because they didn't give him an extension. Give those valuable minutes to guys who have a future with the Lakers.</p>

Sasha made a huge mistake in the New Jersey game not fouling after the Lakers missed. Not only did he not foul his man, it forced Odom (with 5 fouls) to take the foul and he ended up fouling out.</p>

Sasha was also matched up against Durant in the last game, which 110% advantage for Seattle.</p>

In the pre-game show Kurt Rambis mentioned Sasha still doesn't understand what he's supposed to be doing on the court. They don't want him handling the ball, they just want him to concentrate on shooting and playing off the ball. However, Sasha is still calling for the ball to dribble it up and initiate the offense. How brain dead does one need to be to not understand those simple instructions?</p>

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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CelticKing)</div><div class='quotemain'></p>

I still don't get this trade. Evans is a better player than Ariza. He brings energy from the bench and can do everything that Ariza does, twice better.</p>

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Evans is a tweener and doesn't have a true position, which makes his contributions very inconsistent.</p>

One of the main reasons the Lakers made this deal was to unload Brian Cook's salary. This move put them just $1M over the luxury tax threshold instead of being $4M over.</p>

I still support this trade and Ariza will fit in a lot better tha Evans and provides much needed perimeter defense. It also opens up a roster spot for the Lakers to use at some point.</p>

The only problem right now is the fact the Lakers aren't using Ariza yet and they are counting on Sasha far too, much.</p>

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JCritt was dynamite in garbage time tonight. The break away transistion he led when he went around his back twice and then dished to Sasha was off the hook. He's such a bad ass he needs more minutes.</p>

Sasha had a big night, but he's only having breakout games in blowout victories when teams have given up already. When the game was on the line he was making stupid mistakes and JR Smith was getting by him easily. I hope he does play well, but I still don't trust him to be the backup to Kobe. I'd rather the Lakers develop JCritt and Ariza.</p>

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