Lakers Player Profile: Marcelo Huertas
- Updated: November 16, 2016
The Lakers are off to an impressive start compared to last season. The young talented purple and gold are returning 9 players, including point-guard, Marcelo Huertas. His experience and knowledge of running the point guard position helped Marcelo find his way back onto the roster.
Last season was a rebuilding process and also a farewell bid to one of the greatest Lakers ever. Marcelo signed with the Lakers in the summer of last season at the age of 32, making him the oldest rookie. He played in 53 games last season leading the Lakers in assists with 3.4 per game. Once Marcelo received minutes he showed his craftiness and why he was a successful player Internationally. He displayed his confidence game-by-game as he dished out a career-high of 10 assists and scored 13 points on separate occasions. The team praised his ability to run a team oriented offense and his hustle on both sides of the court. Marcelo stepped in for the young guards when they would struggle with the offense.With the experience with International Basketball from 2001-2015, his leadership and success speaks for itself. He gave great advice to D’Angelo last season by stating,
“Be humble. I think that’s the most important thing for him to be successful.”
This season, Marcelo has seen action in 3 games totaling in 23 minutes. This offseason the Lakers added a veteran point guard, Jose Calderon, in a trade this summer. Walton has addressed his thought on both guards, he said,
“I’m sure throughout the season we’ll lean on different ones at different times depending on what we need. But I feel completely confident with either one of them on the floor running the team.”
Luke has two veteran guards with different skill-sets on the bench to guide this young Laker core during the 82-game season. Marcelo’s vision is constantly making people better around him. Walton in his first season made an observation of Huertas, saying,
“Marcelo is probably our best playmaker on the team out there.”
With the season underway, Marcelo is being a constant professional by constantly supporting his team’s success. The Lakers are showing their confidence and their excitement of playing for one another. The Lakers will look to go 3 and 0 at home this week as they beat the Nets on Tuesday. They’ll prepare for their home games this week, Friday against the Spurs and Sunday they’ll face the Chicago Bulls.
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