Lakers Restart Refresh: Talen Horton-Tucker, from G League to big time

In the lead up to the NBA Restart, LeBron Wire will be giving everyone a refresh on who is on the Lakers and where they were before.

With the NBA Restart on the horizon, we are going to take stock of who is on the Los Angeles Lakers, what they did, or didn’t do this season, and what to look for as the Lakers look to march towards their 17th championship banner in the most unprecedented circumstances in NBA history. 

Talen Horton-Tucker

Conventional wisdom and NBA history are against Horton-Tucker being any type of an impact player for the Lakers in the playoffs, but these are unprecedented circumstances. And Horton-Tucker may find himself in the big time, whether due to injury or illness. Luckily the Lakers have spent time developing him in the G League.

While I can’t admit to watching G League games in realtime, I watched some of Horton-Tucker’s film in the G and found a couple of encouraging things if the Lakers need to rely on him unexpectedly.

While the South Bay Lakers have allowed Horton-Tucker to work on his off-the-dribble game. He wasn’t that great at it, truth be told and the South Bay Lakers usually had other point guards run the show. However, what Horton-Tucker did excel at in the G was making shots on the catch-and-shoot.

According to Synergy Sports, Horton-Tucker was in the 68th percentile in the G League in catch-and-shoot situations. Defense in the G League certainly isn’t NBA caliber, but this mark and consistency is a good sign for the type of things he would be asked to do on the Lakers, fitting in around other guards who will have the ball in their hands.

Horton-Tucker is also big for his size, with a long wingspan and a big chest to body bigger players, but he didn’t show that to be very useful in the G League. Synergy rated him out as a “poor” defender in the G League and his film shows that he struggles with the finer points of team defense, closing out to shooters and general help. In isolation situation, he will probably be okay, but this type of struggle in team defense isn’t going to be acceptable on a LeBron team, unless it’s an absolute emergency.

Horton-Tucker shouldn’t be expected to play, but if he does, his consistent 3-point shooting in the G League and his size could help him survive. We also have to realize that Horton-Tucker will have had nearly an entire offseason’s worth of time to work on his game, which could work in favor of his development and to the benefit of the Lakers. However, the Lakers are likely hoping they won’t have to find out if he can survive in a high-pressure situation, at least not this season.

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