The Los Angeles Lakers are having another strong showing in the Las Vegas Summer League. How will these top performers fit into the regular season plans?
The Las Vegas portion of the NBA Summer League started on July 6th, and the Los Angeles Lakers have played well in their first three games (let’s not talk about the Sacramento Summer League).
They’re 3-0 heading into the elimination portion of the league, led by strong play by Josh Hart, Moritz Wagner, and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk. All three of those players seem to be the main players from the roster that will be earning minutes for the Lakers in the 2018-19 regular season.
The question is how often those three will play? Given their youth and the fact that they will be a part of a LeBron James team now, minutes are up for grabs.
Teams that LeBron has played on in the past usually rely heavily on veterans. It remains to be seen if that will happen in Los Angeles as LeBron is joining a team that last year had its top five leaders in minutes played be under the age of 25. However, the Lakers did add veterans following the monumental LeBron signing, bringing in JaVale McGee, Lance Stephenson, and Rajon Rondo.
It was assumed that Lance and Rondo would be coming off the bench, with the Brook Lopez/Milwaukee signing opening up the starting center position for McGee. You’d think that you could at least accurately predict the Lakers’ future starting lineup.
However, Rob Pelinka and Magic Johnson appeared on Spectrum SportsNet and seemed to refute the idea of any of the starting positions being set in stone (aside from that LeBron guy).
During the @SpectrumSN interview with Magic and Pelinka, the latter said every position will be an open competition during training camp, “besides LeBron James, obviously." AK
— Kamenetzky Brothers (@KamBrothers) July 10, 2018
The fact that Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope will be fighting for starting spots should worry Hart, Wagner, and Svi. If those first three players aren’t guaranteed to have their same roles, the three Summer League players should realize their bench minutes aren’t guaranteed either.