Los Angeles Lakers

How the Rising Stars roster shows the Lakers are in trouble

Published Jan. 27, 2016 3:41 p.m. ET

foxsports

In Kobe Bryant's 20th and final NBA season, the Los Angeles Lakers are miserable. Players are bickering with coaches and their on-court product is a tire fire. Luckily, their youngsters are slowly beginning to show legitimate growth, and there was some hope that all three could crack the NBA's Rising Stars roster at All-Star weekend.

Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be.

Guards D'Angelo Russell and Jordan Clarkson made the cut, and will compete on Team USA's behalf. But forward Julius Randle did not.

This is bad news for the Lakers. Randle is averaging 14.3 points and 12.9 rebounds per 36 minutes right now. Only three players in the entire NBA have a higher defensive rebound rate, and only eight have grabbed more total boards.

The 21-year-old isn't just having a solid second season (though it's more like his first, being that he only played 14 minutes last year before he broke his leg), he's having an historic one. The only 21-year-old in NBA history to account for a higher percentage of his team's available defensive rebounds is Andre Drummond, via Basketball-Reference.

That's good company, considering Drummond is currently the best rebounder alive.

Let's take a look at how the final roster shook out:

Here are the rosters for the Rising Stars rookie/sophomore game, via the NBA: pic.twitter.com/bCou6oAHHh
— Adi Joseph (@AdiJoseph) January 27, 2016

The two questionable forwards who "took" Randle's spot are Jabari Parker and Nerlens Noel, though the roster is made up of six guards and four frontcourt players.

You can easily make a case for Randle over Elfrid Payton or Zach LaVine, too.

But what's the case for keeping him off? Randle's rebounding is wonderful, but it comes on a team that's filled with inefficient shooting. He has plenty of opportunities on the glass. Nearly everywhere else, he struggles.

Randle doesn't have a jump shot, he can't finish in traffic (it's tough without a right hand), he fouls a ton and rarely makes the correct defensive rotation.

But everybody on this team has considerable flaws. Randle regularly works on improving his range:

And his athleticism pops up here and there on the defensive end:

A case can be made either way, but the Lakers should be bummed that they couldn't get their three franchise pillars in a game that's meant to showcase the NBA's brightest young talent.