The Los Angeles Lakers have a deep and talented roster. For Frank Vogel, that will make creating a starting lineup slightly challenging.
With the Los Angeles Lakers being almost set roster-wise, they will now begin to start preparing for the regular season.
New head coach, Frank Vogel, will have a roster that is pretty much completely new from last season, and it will take some time to get everything squared away. One of the decisions that Vogel will have to make will be about his starting lineup.
There are two obvious starters for Vogel, as there is no chance that LeBron James or Anthony Davis wouldn’t be in the starting lineup. However, there are a lot of other possibilities at the three other spots.
Recently, Vogel spoke about where he is in terms of making the starting five. Here’s what he had to say via Sabreena Merchant of Silver Screen and Roll.
"“I have some ideas but nothing has been decided yet, you know it’s way too early for that” Vogel said. “There are a lot of staff meetings that we’re going to have, we’re going to study a lot of tape and see how guys play together in training camp, and that’ll all play itself out.”"
There will likely be a lot of experimenting with the starting lineup early on for Vogel. Even though Kyle Kuzma is a strong young player, the Lakers might elect to bring him off the bench to start games.
Kuzma is a very good scorer, and he could be one of the guys Vogel uses to lead the bench in that category. Depending on if LeBron does indeed play point guard will determine how the guard positions look.
Mostly likely, Green will be a starter for the Lakers. His ability to shoot three-pointers and guard multiple positions will be key if the Lakers play big with LeBron. However, with both Rajon Rondo and Quinn Cook at point guard, Vogel has some good options there.
At the center positions, things are very tricky with DeMarcus Cousins and JaVale McGee. If Cousins is healthy and right, he is a better player than McGee. However, McGee really performed well for the Lakers with his expanded role last season, and is just as deserving to be the starter coming into the season.
With a solid roster on paper, Vogel has some good options when it comes to making a starting lineup. While there might be some changes early on depending on how things go, it will be important for Vogel to set his rotation quickly.