Lachlan Olbrich’s early-season stretch was defined by agonizingly empty minutes and complete offensive invisibility as a deep-bench afterthought. He routinely drifted through games as a mere cardio participant, a flaw glaringly obvious during the 12/02 vs ORL matchup. In those 12 minutes, he went completely scoreless and posted a hideous -13.5 Impact score because he failed to generate any meaningful offensive pressure or defensive resistance. Even when granted a longer leash on 01/08 vs DET, his 16 minutes yielded just two points and a -6.9 Impact score, as his total lack of a scoring threat routinely cratered his team's floor spacing. You simply cannot survive in an NBA rotation when you are a literal zero on offense for weeks at a time. He finally found a pulse on 02/01 vs MIA, breaking out of his funk with nine points and four rebounds in 11 minutes. That rare +4.3 Impact score materialized because Olbrich actually hunted his shot, knocking down a three-pointer and finally contributing tangible value instead of just occupying space.

Lachlan Olbrich spent this twelve-game stretch anchored to the end of the bench, battling irrelevance in a sea of garbage-time cameos. He occasionally flashed a pulse as a scorer, like on 02/11 vs BOS when he poured in 7 points on 3-of-4 shooting in just six minutes to scrape out a +0.6 impact score. Given an extended 17-minute look on 03/05 vs PHX, Olbrich managed a +0.2 impact despite scoring just 4 points on a rough 2-of-6 from the floor. He kept his head above water in that contest by doing the dirty work, generating non-scoring value through six hard-fought rebounds and a pair of assists. Mostly, though, his minutes were empty cardio. Even when he found the bottom of the net, the underlying metrics were often brutal. During the 03/12 vs LAL matchup, he hit both of his field goal attempts for 4 points, yet posted a disastrous -14.4 impact score because he grabbed zero rebounds and completely disrupted the team's spacing during his six minutes. If he wants to crack the regular rotation, he has to stop being a net negative in these fleeting audition windows.