Los Angeles Lakers: Rasheed Wallace Adds Toughness to Already Potent Defense

The addition of Rasheed Wallace to the Los Angeles Lakers may seem like a last -ditch effort to gain respectability in the league. It looks like an acquisition of an over-the-hill player that's not going to provide much output for the Lakers. 

However, Rasheed's defense, strength, toughness and grit establishes the Lakers identity as a team that's not going to be pushed around with anymore.

They have attitude now.

You can call them the Crazies because Rasheed Wallace along with Meta World Peace, who are two of the most polarizing and infamous players in NBA history, will be playing on one team now. 

If it was hard to score on the Lakers before, it's going to be an even more arduous task now.

Last season, the Lakers were deemed soft when the Dallas Mavericks overpowered them in an easy four-game sweep. This year, soft is the antonym of the Lakers. 

The team is already in the top five in defense and leads the league in rebounding. Mike Brown's system has revitalized the Lakers defense, which was much maligned during the Phil Jackson era. They weren't known for their defense. Now, it's pretty much all they have as their never-ending search for a point guard continues.

While they still need to make a move for a point guard to become a title contender, it's good to see the Lakers specializing in their strengths. They know what their identity is and they want to bolster it so that they become the most rugged team in the league.

Wallace gives them exactly that. It's true he's been away from the game for awhile, but Brown's system is the perfect one for Sheed.

He doesn't have to score. That's Kobe's job. 

He doesn't even have to start. Metta can do that. 

All he has to do is play tight defense and to get rebounds off the bench. The Lakers bench has been criticized this year for their inconsistency. They now have a player who once continuously tormented the Lakers when he was a member of the Detroit Pistons in the mid-2000s.

His physicality will be a warm addition to the bench. Rasheed hasn't played since the 2009-10 season when he was with the Celtics. In fact, the last game he ever played was against the Lakers in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

Even though he hasn't played in a year and a half, he doesn't have to be the leader of the team to be effective. If he can average 4-5 rebounds per game like he did in his last season off the bench in Boston, that should be fine.

The Lakers starters have had far more success in being aggressive than the bench. Guys like Steve Blake, Josh McRoberts and Matt Barnes haven't been the greatest catalysts. Barnes has stepped up as of late, but more is needed to be make a run for the title.

In a condensed schedule such as this one, there have been times where the Lakers have just gassed out late in games, especially when they've been the second game of the back-to-back. 

The most vivid example is the Lakers meltdown against the Utah Jazz earlier this month on the road and the Oklahoma City Thunder earlier this week. 

With back-to-backs now a reality in the second round of the playoffs this season, the Lakers need to brush up on that and increase their depth.

The Wallace move does that. 

Also, worst case scenario if the move doesn't pan out, it won't hurt the Lakers too much.

It's a low-risk, high-reward acquisition, and it'll be nice to see Sheed play for his former rival. He spent many years with the Portland Trail Blazers and had many duels with the Purple and Gold. 

He was never able to really beat them, except when he was with the Pistons. 

Now he gets a chance to play with an old rival. It should be an exciting time for a guy who thought his career was over. The Lakers have given him a chance to revitalize his career and hopefully for Laker Nation, he'll be able to take advantage of it.