The NBA regular season is still over a week away but the Los Angeles Lakers are already dealing with a blow to their rotation from an injury. Reserve forward Trevor Ariza will be sidelined for at least two months as he underwent an arthroscopic procedure on his ankle.
That will likely cost Ariza at least 24 games to begin the season, if not more. He is only being re-evaluated in eight weeks. After that, he will need some time to get back to game speed and get his conditioning back to where it needs to be.
This was one of the concerns surrounding the Lakers with the roster that they put together. There are a lot of older guys on the team and people questioned whether or not they would be able to hold up over the season. Thus far, the doubters have been proven correct.
Ariza was expected to be an important part of the team’s rotation. He was going to play a reserve role, soaking up minutes at both forward spots depending on the rotations that Frank Vogel was going to deploy.
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Without him, there will be some changes made to the rotation. Vogel has a deep team, but it is never ideal when your game plan has to change before you even step on the court for games that truly count.
How will this injury impact the Lakers? Here are three things that will be impacted by Ariza’s absence.
