One of the stranger aspects of the Lakers’ tanking strategy is that it doesn’t include Thomas Robinson. Despite playing for a team where the only requirement to receive minutes is that you’re a young player with untapped potential, T-Rob barely sees the floor. So either the Lakers don’t think that T-Rob has any potential left in his potential glands anymore, or there are other players with even MORE potential who are stealing all of his minutes. Even though he apparently only needs ten minutes in one quarter to score sixteen points.
It might be a combination of both answers, actually. Julius Randle and Larry Nance both perform best as power forwards. T-Rob is a power forward. Those other guys need the development more than T-Rob, who might be done developing, but also might not be because it’s hard to tell when he gets so few minutes.
All I know is, there has to be a reason this dude was picked fifth overall, and right now he’s in a theoretically perfect situation to prove that he’s not a bust, but Luke Walton and co. aren’t letting him prove anything except that he looks good with his butt on the bench.