By Patrick Hayes

Let’s be honest … with Kobe Bryant accustomed to touching the ball a lot, with the acquisition of Hall of Fame point guard Steve Nash and with two All-Star, franchise-caliber big men in Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum up front, the path to playing time for former Michigan player Darius Morris is not going to be him dominating the ball and running the offense like a traditional point guard. That’s just not what the Lakers need out of their backups. But, as Darius Soriano of Forum Blue and Gold points out, Morris is doing some things this summer that could earn him minutes in other ways:

All that said, we are starting to get a better picture of what types of talents these guys are. Darius Morris is showing that he can be a threat in the open court and in attacking the rim off the dribble in the half court. His size allows him to bully smaller defenders to get to the spots on the floor where he can be successful. His finishing is still up and down, however, and his jumper needs a lot of work. But, he’s showing more confidence in each game and his attack mentality has served him well so far. He certainly likes to pound the ball when probing the D, but that’s the case for most attack guards that create off the dribble as often as he does.

On top of those things Soriano mentioned, although Morris has never been known for his defense, if he shows some ability to use his strength against some of the more physical, bigger guards in the league defensively, that will certainly help him pick up some minutes with Nash considered a bit of a defensive liability.