With a lot of versatile players, the Los Angeles Lakers want to be a positionless team.
The Los Angeles Lakers have built a roster that has multiple players that can play multiple positions. Over the past few years, the NBA has begun to shift toward this, and the Lakers have certainly built their roster accordingly.
This offseason, the Lakers were able to continue to add players that provide versatility. The most notable of course being LeBron James. As the best player in the world, James can play pretty much every position on the court, as his size and speed is truly unique.
Coming from coaching the Golden State Warriors, Luke Walton is certainly familiar with playing positionless basketball, as the Warriors have excellent versatility with their final lineup. Recently, James spoke about him and Walton both agreeing that to SilverScreenAndRoll.com. Here’s what he had to say.
"“We want to be a positionless team, and there’s going to be times where we’re all playing different positions,”"
With the addition of James, the Lakers will have a lot of players that can play positionless basketball well. One of the keys for this, of course, is length at the forward spots. The Lakers will have Brandon Ingram, James, Kyle Kuzma, and Michael Beasley, who can all play multiple spots. The key will be finding one who can be the “center” in a final lineup.
At guard, the length the Lakers have is very good with Lonzo Ball, Rajon Rondo, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Josh Hart. With the length of these guards, they all can cover small forwards on switches without sacrificing much on the defensive end. As we saw last season, KCP and Hart can also move from guard to forward with ease.
With the start of the preseason on Sunday night for the Lakers, we will begin to see how these lineups shake out. Having all this length should once again result in the Lakers being a solid defensive team this coming season. The positionless basketball is certainly a growing trend, and the Lakers are able to do it well.