The Los Angeles Lakers have been up and down throughout the 2023-24 NBA regular season. Right when it looked like they were turning a corner, the team’s production fell off for one reason or another.
Most recently, the Lakers look to be ascending once again. Head coach Darvin Ham has constantly tinkered with the team’s starting lineup and rotation but looks to have found a combination that works.
One of those changes has been removing Taurean Prince from the team’s starting lineup. Ham opted to make the move back on February 3rd against the New York Knicks and it has been hard to argue against the results.
The only two games Prince has started since that move have been when LeBron James is sidelined. As long as James is in the lineup, Prince has been coming off the bench and Los Angeles has been winning.
In the nine games Prince has come off the bench, the Lakers have gone 7-2. Their turnaround could not have come at a better time as making up ground in the Western Conference has been impossible with how well the teams at the top of the conference are playing.
Despite this most recent stretch, Los Angeles is still ninth, looking destined for a spot in the NBA Play-In Tournament. If they want to avoid that, Ham needs to stick to what has been working, which is scaling back the minutes of Prince.
Oddly enough, the fewer minutes Prince receives, the better the team plays. As pointed out by Lakers Legacy Pod on X, Los Angeles is 12-0 this season when Prince plays fewer than 24.5 minutes in a game. When he is over that threshold, the Lakers are only 21-28.
That is such an odd coincidence because, on paper, Prince seems like the perfect fit alongside James and Anthony Davis. His 3-and-D skill set is ideal as he has made 38.5 percent of his 3-pointers this season and possesses the size and athleticism to defend multiple positions.
But, for whatever reason, the Lakers find success when he is playing a smaller role in the rotation. It is something Ham certainly has to pay attention moving forward, as Los Angeles needs to rack up as many wins as possible to try and avoid the NBA Play-In Tournament.
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