3) How Good Will The New Veteran Starters Be
In the off-season, the Lakers acquired center Brook Lopez in the D’Angelo Russell trade and signed free agent shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Both are expected to join the starting lineup. Lopez will likely be one of the team’s leading scorers, and KCP should step right into a ‘3-and-D’ role opposite Ball in the backcourt.
The contracts of each player expire after this season. If, as widely assumed, the team pursues big-name free agents next July, does that mean that Lopez and probably also KCP are only one-year rentals?
What if Lopez is a formidable ‘stretch-5’ this season, leading the team in scoring while being a reasonably effective rim protector on defense? Would that be enough to merit the Lakers re-signing him? Or will the team turn elsewhere no matter what, maybe to a center like DeMarcus Cousins?
And what if KCP proves to be a marvelous complement to Ball by shooting well from the 3-point line, slashing to the hoop effectively and providing excellent defense against the opposition’s top backcourt player? Would that persuade Lakers management to retain him for the future, or will they instead look for a bigger name, such as Russell Westbrook?