Despite their recent struggles to win convincingly against teams with losing records, the fact remains that the Lakers are the best team in the West, and stand atop the conference's standings with a record of 20-3. So when a report surfaces that one of their players may be available, well, let's just say it's worth mentioning.In a discussion about how the Knicks might go about filling the roster spot that opened up when Cuttino Mobley decided to retire, Alan Hahn of Newsday briefly mentioned that the Lakers' Sasha Vujacic (Machine!) may be "available."
With Andrew Bynum and Trevor Ariza both healthy and taking up a lot of minutes, there doesn't seem to be as big of a need for Sasha's services this year. His minutes are only slightly down from a season ago, but the ones he is playing aren't the ones in crunch time that he saw during last year's run to the Finals.
In addition to the drop in minutes from a year ago, there's been an even bigger drop in production. Sasha's field goal percentage is down to 37% from 45% last year, which might just be a mental thing, since most of his minutes this year have come after the starters had already built up a comfortable lead.
In five of his last seven outings, Sasha has failed to hit a single shot from the field. This could be a function of the Lakers being too deep this year, or it could be that he's mentally checked out due to his diminished role. Either way, it appears that Sasha may have become expendable, but whether the Lakers will actually make a move to shake up a team that's off to a 20-3 start remains to be seen.
[via NBC LA]
