Los Angeles Lakers: Can Rajon Rondo, DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis co-exist?

The Los Angeles Lakers put together an old trio from the New Orleans Pelicans in Rajon Rondo, Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins. Will those three be able to co-exist?

Well the fans of the Los Angeles Lakers and the staff of Lake Show Life have one thing in common. We all want the season to start. Not the regular season, I think we would all just live with the preseason at this point.

Yes, Lakers fans, we are sitting smack dab in the middle of the dog days of the sports season. Anthony Davis is now a Laker and Las Vegas has the two Staples Center residents as the top contenders for the NBA title.

The free agency period has dried up and rosters are set. Even the open roster spot the Lakers have open is basically waiting for Andre Iguodala if the Memphis Grizzlies decide to buy him out.

In short, how many times can someone write about the combination of Anthony Davis and LeBron James and why they are the best duo in the NBA? Then compare the duo to Kawhi Leonard and Paul George? Okay, I did break those down asking who is the “King” of L.A. 

No matter how hard media outlets try to find NBA teams with the “Big 3” superteam, Kawhi Leonard put that narrative in the past spurning the Lakers for the Clippers. That doesn’t mean that there is no trio that is less intriguing. The Los Angeles Lakers may have not planned this, but they have a trio on the roster that will have plenty of storylines for Lakers fans throughout the season.

That trio has played together at times over a couple of franchises before teaming up in L.A. They are Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins and Rajon Rondo. DeMarcus Cousins and Rondo played a season in Sacramento and all three played in New Orleans.

A lot of people assume just because these players have a history with the Pelicans and their playoff run, it will transfer over to the Lakers. I have my reservations based on the Pelicans performance before DeMarcus’ Achilles injury and how they took off after he went down.

Plus there are the personalities in the locker room that will provide excitement as well.

Usually, in these reports, I take things past the numbers and provide a different insight for Lakers fans to watch for during the season. This report will have a little bit of both.

David Grubb is back to shine the light on what the Lakers fans might see during the season from Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins and Rajon Rondo based on when he covered the Pelicans during their very short stint playing together.

In 2013, he joined the team at SportsNOLA.com as a contributor before working his way up to cover the New Orleans Pelicans.

David is currently a featured columnist for CrescentCitySports.com as well as The Bird Writes for SB Nation. He is a regular contributor to “The Bird Calls,” a weekly podcast covering the Pelicans.

Along with being a regular on Sports 1280 AM in New Orleans, he has also been a fill-in host for “The D-League” (Sports 1280 AM) and “Sport-a-facts” (WBOK) and is a regular guest on a number of sports talk shows in the New Orleans area. Now he has a daily radio show launching called “Hard in the Paint” covering all stories in the NBA.

In short, if there is anyone that would have insight on what could happen this season and what these three can bring to the Los Angeles Lakers, David Grubb is the man.

I asked him a few questions on what the Lakers unique version of the Big 3 may do this season.

How well did Anthony Davis/Boogie/Rondo actually co-exist in New Orleans?

David Grubb:

"The relationship between the three in the locker room, on the court, and off the court were very different. I’m going to preface all of the answers to these questions by stating that none of this is conjecture or is meant in any way to attack these individuals personally. I think people need to understand that for most of New Orleans, what AD did was actually the best thing for the Pelicans. None of this, including the Davis trade, probably goes down as it did without his initial trade request. That being said, there was friction at times between them, and it was typically either Davis or Rondo dealing with Cousins. There were reports that Davis bristled at the attention that Cousins was getting during 2017-18, being mentioned as an early MVP candidate that season. More than one story circulated that Davis was told that he was losing his own team to the more charismatic Cousins. There were also stories that Cousins would ask to be reinserted into games to pad his stats and that he regularly broke off plays on both ends. Rondo was not happy that Cousins was injured, but he welcomed the opportunity to take full charge of the offense once the ball was no longer being stopped when it reached Cousins’ hands. When both signed elsewhere after the season, it was an open secret that Davis was more impacted by the loss of Rondo than that of Cousins."

This was a discussion on ESPN that got heated. Understand that LeBron was still in Cleveland at the time. Pay special attention to Jalen Rose‘s statement about ESPN being a “Cleveland Cavaliers” network.

Now the question is, can Anthony Davis deal with the attention (or lack thereof) of being with the most polarizing NBA player in history? Davis will not know the level of the drama of playing with LeBron James until basically 25 games into the season.

If you don’t think LeBron James’ every move is scrutinized, there is a debate all over social media how he celebrated his son, Bronny, dunking in an AAU game.

The debates will eventually come out who’s the best player on the Lakers. This piece is not about that, if you are a Lakers fan, you really shouldn’t care. But if Anthony Davis starts to care as he did in New Orleans, this will be an issue if the Lakers have problems during the season.

All eyes will be on Anthony Davis this season. Will these three be able to handle it?

David Grubb:

"Rondo has been used to attention his entire career. He is unfazed by it. I haven’t seen many more players who care less about what anyone outside of the locker room thinks. He doesn’t work that way. He consumes basketball. If you ask DeMarcus, the spotlight follows him no matter what he does, and to extent that has been true. He will continue to take a “me against the world” approach externally. AD is the question mark. He’s courted attention. He wants to be recognized. I’m not sure if he understands how much Los Angeles is going to be different from New Orleans. He was protected here. There was never a tremendous amount of scrutiny for Anthony over seven seasons. The bar for him was low. He’s going to a place where championships are not an expectation for great players, they are a requirement. Elgin Baylor is the only Laker who had his jersey retired without winning a title and I’m guessing neither LeBron James nor Davis wants to be the second. So, it will be an adjustment to go from having people overlook losing, to questioning every perceived misstep."

Anthony Davis has already gone on record stating not winning a title will be considered a failure in his eyes. That’s good because this franchise is a different situation from the “Big Easy”. The fans, NBA experts and Lakers greats that have put up banners will give you the message made famous by the late great Al Davis, “Just Win Baby”.

On the outside looking in, LeBron James might have miscalculated the passion of the fans wanting this franchise back to playoff status last year. LeBron can definitely guide Davis through the pitfalls that he fell into at times last year.

If AD doesn’t believe me, well if he doesn’t get his mind right, this rant by Stephen A. Smith at LeBron James last year will feature Davis this year.

When DeMarcus Cousins and Davis were teamed up, Cousins career was in a totally different space, to say the least. Then he was a star, now he’s fighting to stay in the league.

Can Cousins deal with being a possible fifth option in a contract year?

David Grubb:

"Even with his problems, DeMarcus wants to win. He does want to compete. It’s just that he can be stubborn about how he wants to play. It will be interesting to see how both he and JaVale McGee respond to how many minutes they see at the 5, considering that AD plays best as a center. McGee balked last season at splitting time during a career year, and he’s going to want his numbers too. Frank Vogel has work to do."

Vogel sure does. His identity as a coach is on the line. Sure the Warriors lost the NBA Finals because of injuries to Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson. But what gets lost is the Kevon Looney injury. When he got hurt, most of the interior defense left with him.

Toronto made it a point to put Cousins in a pick and roll situation and picked on him every chance they got. Even before the injuries, Cousins wasn’t the greatest defender in the world (More on that later!).

JaVale McGee deserves to start based on his performance last year. Before his bout with pneumonia in January, he was well on his way to being a candidate for NBA’s Most Improved Player.

When he got back in shape, McGee at times was the most dominant player on the court, running the floor, scoring on the break and destroying the glass with Jemerrio Jones at the end of the year.

Remember, Cousins was looking for a $200 million dollar max deal when he was traded from Sacramento. After the injury, his career has gone in a way only Isaiah Thomas can truly understand.

Instead of a max deal, Cousins collected $5.6 million from the Warriors and now $3.5 million from the Lakers. With next year not being a guarantee, this is something that needs to be watched closely.

Can Rondo deal with a lesser role with the Los Angeles Lakers?

David Grubb:

"Rondo may not have the luxury of playing a lesser role. The Lakers are limited in primary ball-handlers; with Quinn Cook, who is not the passer Rondo is, and LeBron along with Rondo. If AD is on the floor and LeBron isn’t, someone has to initiate the offense."

Here’s where David and I disagree. Those reports that LeBron James was penciled in as point guard was almost laughable. Not because it wasn’t true, but so what? LeBron James has been the unofficial point guard his entire career.

Remember when James was supposed to play in the post? That lasted all of say 20-25 games? Plus if the Lakers can nab Andre Iguodala, Rondo’s role will probably diminish even further. At this point, I can guarantee that Vogel can’t trust him to finish games because his defense is non-existent at this point of his career.

To all the Lakers fans believing that Anthony Davis will bail him out. Let’s take a closer look at how the defense looked with and without DeMarcus Cousins on the floor.

Pels had a losing record with bad defense with these three. Effect on the Lakers?

David Grubb:

"I don’t think people understand just how dramatic the change for the Pelicans was once DeMarcus went down in 2017-18. The Pelicans were 27-21 with a +/- of 0.4 on Jan 26., when he tore his Achilles. They were 22nd in DRTG and individually, Cousins ranked 28th among centers in Defensive Real +/-. The Pelicans hardly noticed the difference whether he was on the court or off of it, he just didn’t make an impact other than on the box score. Over the final 34 games, the Pels went 21-13 and ranked sixth in the NBA defensively with a 105.8 DRTG. When Cousins went down, the Pelicans offense wasn’t as dynamic, but it wasn’t leaking so profusely on the defensive end, which made up for it."

Pelicans top five before injury:

Player                            ORTG  DRTG
Anthony Davis            109.4 104.7
Jrue Holiday                 110.0 105.6
Rajon Rondo                109.1 112.8
DeMarcus Cousins     108.5 106.6
E’Twaun Moore           108.7 108.8

Pelicans top five after injury:

Player                             ORTG  DRTG
Anthony Davis             109.1  103.8
Jrue Holiday                  108.4  102.9
Rajon Rondo                 106.0  101.2
Nikola Mirotic                  108.4  104.7
E’Twaun Moore            108.7  102.0

"As you can see, there was a slight offensive down tick, but there was tremendous defensive improvement. Rondo went from a negative contributor to a major positive. But now you’re talking about a Cousins, two years and two leg injuries later, and a 33 year old Rondo who finished 77th defensively among point guards last season. So betting on them to help the Lakers stop anybody is probably unwise."

Is anyone convinced yet?

These three can make or break the Los Angeles Lakers more than most realize!

Is this breakdown in any way saying that these three can’t co-exist this year? No. It’s a warning not to just take a look at the roster on paper and stats from years ago and assume that there will be no problems.

All of these players will help the Los Angeles Lakers in their own right. But how and where is the question. The dynamics from two years ago in New Orleans have changed. Rajon Rondo was almost out of the NBA. Now he has a two year deal with his option. DeMarcus Cousins was considered an underrated top 10 superstar in Sacramento. Now he’s a player that is on the list of players the NBA has passed by.

Anthony Davis went from an up and coming superstar to one of the top 5 players in the NBA and a possible MVP candidate. Think it doesn’t matter.

Let’s see around Christmas if it does.