Alex Len: Is he a good fit for Lakers?

The Lakers added Alex Len for size and toughness, but as Jovan Buha put it, he's "a major negative offensively and a slight negative defensively," making him more of an emergency option than a regular contributor and a good fit.

The Los Angeles Lakers had been searching for a big man, and they finally found one, signing 12-year NBA veteran Alex Len. To make room for him, they parted ways with injured center Christian Wood.

But is the Ukrainian big the right fit for the Lakers?

Jovan Buha of The Athletic explored this question in his recent podcast, breaking down Len's strengths and weaknesses.

"Moving forward, it's still going to be Jaxson Hayes, small ball, and then occasionally, based on the matchup or the context of the game, maybe some Alex Len for some size, some physicality."

Buhan then expanded on Len's positives, mainly his fighting spirit and toughness.

"He plays with a certain level of physicality. That's a guy that you don't want to mess with," Buha said. "He looks like a scary guy, positively. He's a guy who's gonna come in, set hard screens, take hard fouls, and just play with a level of physicality and confrontation that I think the Lakers could use.

"He's a 12-year veteran, so there's an element of experience, leadership, and familiarity with a lot of the players on the team. As I said, he's very physical, he's strong. He can block shots. His block rate is still solid, and he is a solid offensive rebounder as well.

"His primary ways of scoring are three: dump-off passes, putbacks, and a solid floater in pick-and-roll," the LA insider went on to say. "He's tried to expand out to the 3-point line, but it's not really worked out. He'll occasionally hit one, but he's also just as liable to airball. I don't think that's quite in his repertoire yet.

Defensively, Len is a traditional low-post big man.

"Defensively, from a mobility perspective, I would say he's quicker than he looks, but he's not quick," Buha noted. "In general, he's much more of a drop coverage, like a low post-banger-type big man, than anything."

However, Len's weaknesses are hard to ignore, especially his lack of consistent playing time in recent years.

"I think the biggest weakness with Alex Len, and the biggest thing that gives me pause with this entire situation from the Lakers' perspective, is he has not averaged more than 10 minutes in three consecutive seasons," Buha underlined. "Most backup big men, even the ones that are seldom used, kind of walk into 10, 12, or 15 minutes a night, and Alex Lang has been a single-digit guy for three straight seasons.

"This season, he's only played double-digit minutes in only seven games. Last year, that was only 21 games. Between this season and last season, he's played 20 or more minutes in one game.

"One thing with this is if Jaxson Hayes gets injured or does foul out of an important game. If I were the Lakers, I'd be operating as if I had to go small and not use Alex Len. I don't think the way he's performed in the last couple of years, it's a guy you don't need to rely on.

"In terms of additional weaknesses, limited mobility from a pick and roll coverage standpoint," Buha continued. "He's not a vertical threat -- there were several times Kings' players tried to throw lobs for him, and he just would have to jump up and try to flick it in or come down with it and then try to power back up.

"He fouls a lot, both offensively and defensively," Buha added. "He sets a lot of illegal screens. From a lineup data perspective, he had the worst on-off differential on the entire Kings roster."

Ultimately, the Lakers signed Len out of necessity rather than because he was a perfect fit.

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