Getty Darvin Ham & Rob Pelinka of the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Patrick Beverley experience has gotten off to a quick start for the Los Angeles Lakers. The polarizing guard has always had a penchant for making some wild comments and that has yet to change. It’s no secret that the Lakers were a disaster last year and didn’t even sniff the playoffs despite having a roster littered with future Hall of Famers.
Beverley was with the Minnesota Timberwolves last season and made the playoffs. His team was eliminated in the first round but that wasn’t enough to kill the guard’s confidence. He recently stated that LeBron James and Anthony Davis “get” to play with him because he actually made the playoffs last season. In his mind, being the fourth or fifth best player on a team that gets knocked out in Round 1 in the playoffs is better than being two years removed from winning a championship.
Fox Sports analyst Nick Wright is not a fan of Beverley and was stunned by his comments.
“He says, ‘anywhere I go we make the playoffs.’ Fun fact, he was in Houston, they never made it out of Round 2,” Wright said of Beverley on the “What’s Wright? With Nick Wright” podcast. “He then got hurt, they make the conference finals for the first time since Hakeem (Olajuwon) was there.
“They then traded him, after not making another conference finals for a couple of years, then immediately make the conference finals again. He goes to be Clippers and they’re a tough scrappy team and then they lose Kawhi Leonard, they make the conference finals. Do you know what Ty Lue’s big adjustment was? He benched Patrick Beverley. And here’s the problem, the lack of self-awareness.”
Wright then went on to attack Beverley’s comments directly.
“Then the Lakers called them, they’re like, ‘Hey, we have this kid Talen Horton Tucker,’ and the Jazz were like oh the guy who according to the nerdy numbers, player efficiency rating value over replacement player was the second worst player in the entire league to get regular minutes last year?’ They’re like, ‘Yeah, we want to trade him to you,'” Wright said.
“And that team was like, ‘Oh boy, we’d give you Pat Bev straight up one for one will you do it?’ That’s it. And this f**&ing guy is saying LeBron James, arguably the greatest player ever, inarguably one of the three greatest players ever, and Anthony Davis, who’s a top 75 guy and a champion, they get to play with me because I made the playoffs last year they didn’t.”
Wright Predicts Beverley to Get Traded
LeBron isn’t about to start a beef with a new teammate but he can’t love how Beverley has been handling himself in his early days as a Laker. If he keeps being an antagonist, there’s a chance he could get shown the door sooner than he expects. It is notable that LeBron has yet to say anything about the Beverley acquisition but immediately reacted to the recent signing of Dennis Schroder.
The Lakers aren’t allowed to trade the guard yet as he was just recently acquired but that changes on October 25, 2022. Wright is predicting that Beverley could be moved as soon as it’s possible.
“October 25th … that’s the day he can be traded,” Wright said on “First Things First.”
Would Lakers Actually Trade Beverley so Soon?
It would certainly be surprising for the Lakers to sour on Beverley so soon but it’s not like they have much of an investment. It was clear that the Talen Horton-Tucker contract was a bad call so the team was able to get off of that. For that fact, Beverely has already served his purpose. The recent addition of Schroder makes it easier to get rid of the guard.
That said, the Lakers likely traded for Beverley because they think he can help. He can be an irritant but that’s typically for opposing teams. It’s hard to imagine he’ll have many more distressful comments about his superstar teammates while he’s on the team. He could be a trade piece down the road but the Lakers aren’t counting the day to move him quite yet.