5 Hot Takes for LA Lakers After Monday Night's Loss to Phoenix Suns
The Los Angeles Lakers took the Phoenix Suns to the brink on Monday night, but they suffered their first loss of the season, 109-105, in a game in which LeBron James had 11 points on 3-of-14 shooting.
This early in the season, there's still plenty to learn about everyone, but Monday's game was particularly instructive.
It was easy for Lakers fans to be excited about the 3-0 start and perhaps look past some concerns, but this loss exposed those flaws a bit and gave us plenty of fodder for another round of hot takes.
Anthony Davis Will Stay in the MVP Race
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The 2024-25 campaign is barely a week old, but Anthony Davis has been one of its best players.
Even in L.A.'s first loss of the season, the 31-year-old was plus-14 and had 29 points, 15 rebounds, three blocks and three assists.
And this was far from an outlier performance. AD leads the Lakers in box plus/minus (by a wide margin) and is averaging 32.8 points, 12.0 boards, 3.3 assists and 2.5 blocks.
Offensively, he's dominating inside and scoring well from the short mid-range. Defensively, he remains one of the league's most dynamic rim protectors and still looks more spry than most bigs when switched onto the perimeter.
Although Kevin Durant got to 30 points on the night, there were multiple possessions in which Davis stymied him.
And with LeBron rapidly approaching his 40th birthday, all of the above is just going to keep getting more important.
Season-long numbers at or near those above are in play. They might even be necessary to keep L.A. in the play-in mix. Put all that together, though, and you have a recipe for an MVP candidate.
Rui Hachimura Will Average a Career-High in Scoring
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In our last batch of hot takes on the Lakers, we predicted Rui Hachimura wouldn't get traded this season. And that's aging pretty well, given L.A.'s 60-plus-win pace and a big performance from the 26-year-old on Monday.
He wasn't terribly efficient (he was 8-of-18 from the field), but he had 20 points and was a team-high plus-20 in a four-point loss.
And though Davis has often expressed a desire to spend more time at power forward during his years with the Lakers, it's not hard to see why the 4-5 combo with him and Hachimura works so well.
The 2019 No. 9 overall pick is big enough to occasionally spare Davis from having to guard 5s (he famously spent a lot of time on Nikola Jokić in the 2023 playoffs), and he can defend the perimeter relatively well for his position. But the most obvious benefit to starting him with Davis is the three-point shooting.
Monday, he was 3-of-3 from deep, bringing his three-point percentage up to 61.5 percent. His scoring average crept up to 17.5, which is almost four points clear of his career high.
The season-long mark may dip a bit from there, but Hachimura will still put up more points per game than he ever has in the NBA.
Austin Reaves Will Receive All-Star Consideration
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These takes might feel a little optimistic after a loss, but L.A. just pushed a star-studded Suns roster to the final buzzer in Phoenix, and Austin Reaves was a big reason why.
After going for 23 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals, the 26-year-old is now averaging 19.3 points (just shy of LeBron's 20.0), seven boards and 5.3 assists.
In today's offensively supercharged league, that line may not seem like one that would garner All-Star consideration, but you have to consider a little more context here.
The Lakers aren't just 3-1. They look more creative offensively under new coach JJ Redick. AD has been empowered and looks like an MVP candidate. By the time All-Star voting wraps, they should still be firmly in the playoff hunt.
That, in concert with the extra attention L.A. gets over most of the rest of the league is going to translate to some All-Star consideration for Reaves.
He's the second-most important playmaker on the most famous team in the NBA. And his scoring average will be right around that of the legendary LeBron.
LeBron James Is Mortal
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Part of why Reaves is going to put up fringe All-Star numbers this season is L.A. needing just a bit more from him.
LeBron is obviously doing things we've never seen from a near-40-year-old. And decades of dominance have made it hard to believe when he has off-nights.
But games like Monday's are likely to be a bit more common than they've been in the past. He still made some positive contributions. He was tied with D'Angelo Russell for the team lead in assists against Phoenix with eight, but it's tough for a team to overcome someone scoring 11 points on 14 shots.
LeBron's season-long numbers are still going to be good (and ridiculous for a player at his age). Even after the down night, he's at 20.0 points, 7.5 assists and 7.0 rebounds.
But, for what may be the first time since his rookie campaign, he's going to look mortal from time to time in 2024-25.
Lakers Should Trade for Walker Kessler
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Hours before Monday's tipoff, Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler started trending on X, thanks mostly to Jovan Buha of The Athletic.
"I think we need more time to see which guys become available," he said of trade candidates on his Buha's Block podcast. "I think Walker Kessler is a name that the Lakers have been interested in that would make a lot of sense and would allow you to either start a two-big look or, probably more realistically, bring him off the bench and then play two-big shifts and then, in certain matchups, close with two bigs."
As noted, there's value in keeping AD at the 5, but Buha is right. There are certain teams (like the Denver Nuggets) that could call for a bigger look from the Lakers, and they're not really equipped to provide it right now.
Jaxson Hayes has been solid in limited minutes, but Kessler is a more reliable rim protector. And the thought of a defensive front line with him and AD is pretty terrifying.
The other reason this makes sense is that the 23-year-old obviously isn't a star, so he shouldn't cost a what a major name would on the trade market.
L.A. could give up what's left of its movable assets to go after someone like Zach LaVine, but the Lakers have proved strong enough to stay in the playoff mix without something dramatic like that.
They need more of a roster refinement than an overhaul, and Kessler is potentially that.
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