For the first time this season, the players on the Los Angeles Lakers roster are healthy enough to all be activated for action. While this is great for the team as a whole, it also results in even more competition for minutes amongst the non-starters. The guards, including Sasha, are subject to this situation as they are rotated by coach Phil Jackson in a sometimes predictable, and at times unpredictable, manner.

It’s true; we haven’t seen much of Sasha Vujacic out on the court lately. On a few occasions, if you take a look at the box score we’ve seen the dreaded “DNP- Coach’s Decision” next to Sasha’s name on the stat sheet. When he does get playing time, it is usually for a few seconds on the final shot of a quarter, either for defensive purposes, for the Lakers to have an extra shooter out on the floor, or at the very end of an already decided game. And this isn’t particularly surprising when you consider that the Lakers’ bench has three guards on its roster: Jordan Farmar, Shannon Brown, and Sasha.

Basketball, however, is a game of momentum. This applies to the players just as much as it does to the momentum of a game being played. Guys go on streaks, guys go through slumps, guys get injured and so on. It’s difficult to say what we might see in the future because to a degree, nothing is for certain.

What we do know for certain is what we have already seen, and what we’ve seen is Sasha being patient and waiting for his moment. In the past few road games against the Pacers, the Wizards, and 76ers, Sasha has been getting very limited minutes, but they were not “garbage” minutes. His shot selection has been extremely selective, and he’s been making good decisions out on the floor. I imagine this is what the coaching staff wants to see from Sasha. And just as I am writing this article, during the first Lakers/Celtics meeting of the season, Sasha is awarded some playing time early in the game during the first quarter after Artest picked up two fouls. Sasha’s patience is slowly paying off.

Sasha’s fans, for their part, are trying to be patient as well. They’re exuberant when he does get minutes and when he doesn’t, they’ll be prompting for Phil Jackson to “Let Sasha Play” via various social media applications. Not that they really expect for the Lakers’ head coach to be looking for coaching advice online during the games, I think it’s more for solidarity purposes than anything else.

It was earlier in the season when the contributors met with Sasha for dinner, but the sentiments he expressed then still hold true now. “It’s not the best of times, but I am very stubborn,” he admitted when talking about his role on the Lakers. “We have a good team, with a lot of guys, and the Bench Mob is still searching for their roles.”

There’s something peculiar about roles, in that they can and do change, forcing players to make adjustments; adjustments Sasha is still making. While some of the Lakers bench players have found their niche in the game, the Bench Mob as a whole is still being widely criticized for not producing enough. At this point in the season, it is difficult to say what the reasons for that are. All we can really do is watch and see if anything changes.