Los Angeles Lakers: Comparing each position in 2019-2020 to last season
By Ethan Temkin
Small forward
2018-2019 SF Depth Chart: LeBron James, Brandon Ingram, Reggie Bullock
2019-2020 SF Depth Chart: LeBron James, Talen Horton-Tucker
Surprisingly, small forward is the one position where the Lakers may have gotten worse, if only for the reason that there are some pretty glaring depth issues.
Last year the team had Brandon Ingram and Reggie Bullock, who the team acquired at the trade deadline to soak up some wing minutes. But with those two gone, the team’s only other true small forward this season is rookie Talen Horton-Tucker.
The only other players on this team capable of playing small forward are Danny Green in smaller lineups and Kyle Kuzma, who is still a question mark regarding his ability to be effective at that position.
Having LeBron play major minutes in the regular season isn’t exactly ideal, and I believe some of this lack of depth has to do with the team expecting an Andre Iguodala buyout, which may still very well happen.
Regardless of whether or not the team actually acquires Iggy, the buyout market will be the place where the Lakers make improvements at this position — similar to how the team bolstered their center rotation last season with Tyson Chandler.
I don’t expect them to go into the postseason with LeBron as the only serviceable small forward, but as the situation stands right now, I liked last season’s small forward rotation much more than this year’s.