The starting unit
LeBron James should not start games at point guard for three reasons:
- It will cause huge matchup problems for the Lakers on defense. It’s hard to imagine LeBron James, Kyle Kuzma, or even Danny Green at age 32 being able to stay in front of the likes of Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard, Russell Westbrook, Mike Conley, Jamaal Murray, and all the other talented point guards across the league.
- There’s no need to ask an aging LeBron James to do more work than is necessary. It makes sense for him to close games as the Lakers “de facto” point guard, but Frank Vogel should do everything he can to ease LeBron’s in-game burden.
- Only one team in the NBA didn’t start a true point guard last year; the Phoenix Suns. How’d that work out? Phoenix went 19-63 and then on the opening day of free agency dished out a massive three-year, $51 million contract to perhaps the 20th best point guard in the association, Ricky Rubio.
Quickly moving on to Anthony Davis. Many folks in LA would love to see AD start at center, the position that he plays best. However, Davis has said numerous times that he doesn’t want to start games at the 5 because he doesn’t like to take the physical abuse he must endure while bodying up opposing big men.
Similarly to LeBron it makes sense for AD to close games as the Lakers center, but Frank Vogel should try to preserve Davis’s body for the playoffs as much as possible.
It’s clear that Danny Green should start at shooting guard, LeBron James should start at small forward, and Anthony Davis should start at power forward. With that knowledge in hand we still have to decide who ought to be the Lakers first string point guard and who should open games at center.
Let’s start with the Lakers starting point guard.
There’s only one player who should open for the Lakers at the 1 spot; Avery Bradley.
LeBron James is going to run the Lakers half court offense, so the Purple and Gold only need a starting point guard who can do these three things well:
- Defend opposing point guards.
- Bring the ball up the floor.
- Shoot well from deep.
Over the last three seasons the aggressive, lock-down style defense that Avery Bradley showed while on the Boston Celtics vanished. Thus he was traded to three different teams over the last 3 seasons.
According to Silverscreenandroll’s Dr. Rajpal Brar, injuries are the cause of Bradley’s awful defense over the last three seasons,
Here’s a quick summary of the injuries Dr. Brar noted:
"2016-2017 season A strained achilles caused Bradley to miss 16 straight games, and 20-21 games total. Further, achilles injuries are notoriously sensitive with discomfort that can last for months. 2017-2018 season Bradley suffered a strained right adductor (one of the groin muscles) on Dec. 15, with constant soreness through February that eventually led to a sports hernia surgery that ended his 2017-2018 season. 2018-2019 season Bradley dealt with ankle sprains and residual soreness in October, February, and March. He also had knee soreness that was first officially listed in February, and continued to bother him throughout March. Bradley’s right wrist soreness was first listed in March and bothered him for the rest of that month."
This theory makes a lot of sense, especially because Avery Bradley’s only 28-years-old, smack in the middle of his prime. All things considered, he should be performing at his peak over the next two seasons that he suites up for the Lakers.
To go along with the fact that Bradley will most likely be at the height of his powers next year, there’s also reason to believe that Bradley’s injury problems are behind him. He put up great numbers for Memphis after the All-Star break last year.
Here’s his stats while in Memphis:
16 PPG, 4 APG, 3 RPG, 1 SPG, 38 3P% off of 5 attempts per game
Those are his best statistics since his days in Boston.
Continuing on, Bradley played point guard during his first three seasons in Boston, so he can certainly bring the ball up the court for the Lakers and he’ll also be able to initiate the offense on occasion.
He also has a .365 career three-point percentage, which will help spread the floor for LeBron James and Anthony Davis to run pick and rolls.
It’s obvious that Avery Bradley is the best choice to start at point guard for the Lakers next season, because he’s the only battle tested guard who checks all three bullet points.
One question remains: Who should start at center for the Lakers next year?
JaVale McGee and DeMarcus Cousins are the only two candidates.
Many of the Lakers players recruited Cousins hard during the offseason and he also looks like he’s in great shape, but he should still come off the bench for the Lakers.
Here’s why JaVale McGee should start:
- JaVale is the better rim protector. McGee has a career block percentage of 7.0, while Cousins career block percentage is 3.1. It’s very important to have rim protection in the starting lineup, because that will allow the Lakers perimeter players to crowd and disrupt their assignments.
- JaVale is the better roll man. Last season McGee averaged 1.32 points per possession (88th percentile) as the roll man. Cousins on the other hand, averaged .80 ppp (12th percentile) last year rolling to the rim. McGee’s ability to play out of the pick and roll with LeBron will be very useful in the starting lineup, because we can’t expect AD to play out of the pick and roll every possession. McGee will allow him to take plays off on offense.
- Cousins is a much better post up option than McGee. DeMarcus’ ability to produce his own shot is much better suited for the second unit. The Lakers will have enough scoring with LeBron and AD surrounded by Danny Green and Avery Bradley to start games, however the bench will really need Cousins scoring punch.
Having McGee start over Cousins isn’t an indictment of DeMarcus. JaVale is just a better fit to start games, however it’s very likely that Cousins will close contests for the Purple and Gold.
Here’s what the starting lineup should look like next season:
- Avery Bradley
- Danny Green
- LeBron James
- Anthony Davis
- JaVale McGee