Max Christie says he ‘really wanted’ to play in playoffs, felt he could help Lakers

Unfortunately, we’ll never know how good Max Christie would’ve been for the Lakers against the Nuggets after he did not play, something he spoke about in his exit interview.

The Lakers made the unusual decision to have their exit interviews immediately after the final buzzer sounded on Monday, after their Game 5 defeat against the Denver Nuggets.

With all the players speaking with the media, we heard from the biggest names, like LeBron James, to the end-of-the-bench players, such as Max Christie.

I'm not certain if Christie had the world's briefest exit interview, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a shorter one. He spoke for just 43 seconds, but what he said was telling.

"I really wanted to be out there for sure," Christie said. "Tonight sucks just seeing us get eliminated because I really feel like I could help this team. But I think that's what everybody feels like when they're not playing. Everybody wants to be out there."

It has to be frustrating to think you can help a team and instead sit on the bench. It's one thing if you are a top team with good bench players, but the Lakers bench struggled all season, putting points on the board and the playoffs were no exception.

Only one of the five playoff games the Lakers played had a player in double figures: Game 1 when Taurean Prince scored 11 points.

Now, Christie only averaged 4.2 points in 14.1 minutes played during the regular season, so given his limited run throughout the year, the argument can be made that he didn't deserve playoff time.

However, the counterargument to that would be that Lakers head coach Darvin Ham never utilized or developed Christie enough despite some bright moments during the season and his DNPs in the playoffs say more about the Laker's inability to develop him than they do about his current performance as an NBA player.

Watching him summarize his entire season in the length of a YouTube short was hilarious, frustrating and a condemnation of the Lakers organization.

The playoffs are all about making adjustments and optimizing your team to face the team in front of them. Given that the Lakers lost in five games, it felt like certain options weren’t explored enough. At the very least, Christie should've gotten a shift somewhere to prove if he could contribute or give the team a jump start when it was struggling in the second half of games against Denver.

Instead, he rotted on the bench, living a life where you prepare in anticipation for moments that never come.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.