The Los Angeles Lakers made a nice addition to their backcourt recently when they acquired point guard Patrick Beverley from the Utah Jazz ahead of the 2022-23 NBA season. It cost the team Talen Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson, but he is a good fit for this roster.
A seasoned veteran, Beverley will not shy away from the spotlight that comes from playing for the Lakers. While he doesn’t have the upside of someone such as Horton-Tucker, you know what you are going to be getting from Beverley every time he steps on the court.
Tenacious, energetic defense will be on display for all 94 feet of the court. He will set the tone for his teammates and has no qualms about holding them accountable from the stars at the top to the undrafted rookie making the league minimum.
Accountability is something that the Lakers were sometimes missing last season but that will no longer be the case with the supremely confident Beverley. In addition to the defense, he provides the team with solid 3-point shooting and secondary playmaking.
On paper, Beverley should be an excellent fit alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis. His presence gives the team insurance in case they find a trade partner for Russell Westbrook as Beverley can step right into the starting lineup and is likely a better fit alongside the other stars.
However, new head coach Darvin Ham already has some ideas of how he will make things work should Westbrook remain on the roster. The long-time rivals sharing the court is something that he already has some plans for, according to Marc Stein.
“Russell Westbrook and Patrick Beverley have already been in contact since becoming Lakers teammates, league sources tell me, and new coach Darvin Ham has told them he has lineups in mind to play Russ and PatBev side-by-side.”
That is certainly an interesting idea deploying Westbrook and Beverley together. Given their skill sets, they should be a good fit offensively as Beverley can space the court, opening things up for Westbrook to do what he does best in attacking the rim.
On defense, Beverley is more than capable of overcoming Westbrook’s shortcomings on that end of the court. However, the only issue with playing them together is that it will put a ton of pressure on James to defend the No. 1 option on the wing for the opposing team.
While something he is capable of doing for spurts, asking him to do that regularly in the regular season could wear him down. Pairing Westbrook and Beverley is likely something that Ham will use based on matchups, not as a go-to lineup pairing. But, that kind of versatility is possible with the other playmakers that Los Angeles has on the roster.
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