Lakers' Champion Center Rejoins ESPN Crew After Getting Bounced in 2023 Playoffs
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The Los Angeles Lakers have had some interesting names at the center position over the last couple of years. No lineups have been able to replicate the same production and defensive dominance like the ones in 2020 that featured Anthony Davis at the four and either Dwight Howard or Javale McGee at the five but they have still tried.
Guys like DeMarcus Cousins, Andre Drummond, and Thomas Bryant were all brought in to hopefully become the full-time center but all failed for one reason or another. LA then decided to just place Anthony Davis there when nothing else was working and opted to use their final roster spot heading into the playoffs on Tristan Thompson.
The reasoning here was pretty clear. Thompson has also been a good friend of LeBron James ever since they won that 2016 title with Cleveland and he knows what it's like to battle on the biggest stage possible.
His expectations were never to go out there and play 20 minutes a night and be a rebounding machine like the old days. He brought energy off the bench, served as an important locker room presence, and played hard whenever he did get in the game.
Thompson only saw action in six games during LA's playoff run that ended in the WCF but got some extended minutes in game four and fans quickly took note of how he was able to hold his own against Nikola Jokic and even got rewarded with a fast break dunk.
But it's also important to remember that the 32-year-old big man hadn't played for another team the entire season. He instead found his way to ESPN as an analyst and then got back into basketball mode when the Lakers came calling.
And now that LA's season is over, Tristan wasted no time and immediately hopped on a segment of 'Inside The NBA' along with Richard Jefferson and Malika Andrews. He went as far as to give the Miami Heat some tips on how to guard Jokic in the Finals based off of his own experience.
"For me when I was guarding him, it started with meeting him early," said Thompson. "Put a body on him, I had a low center of gravity. You always have to make him feel you and push him out of his spots. As a scorer, if you have to work hard, you take shots like this."(Via ESPN)
This is quite interesting to see and I believe that even if the Lakers and other teams opt to let Thompson remain a free agent, he has a long career ahead of him in media.
