Los Angeles Lakers: How a healthy DeMarcus Cousins could fit with the Lakers next season

LeBron James

It has been a bounce-back season for the Los Angeles Lakers. On the back of the Lakers landing LeBron James in free agency 2018, so much was expected of the Lakers the upcoming season. However, with numerous injuries including a long term injury to LeBron James himself, the Lakers found themselves in the lottery once again.

A significant portion of the blame was being directed at LeBron, with outsiders pointing out that when the going got tough, LeBron disappeared into the shadows.

Whilst the NBA finals were going on, one of the main storylines was LeBron James is no longer the player he once was, that the era of LeBron was done and the King was now the “Washed King”.

Channeling his inner Mamba mentality (R.I.P Kobe), LeBron took every ounce of hate, doubt, and criticism he received and used it as fuel.

Let the “Washed King” Tour begin.

This season, to put it lightly, LeBron James has been busting everyone’s ass.

Leading the league in assists and scoring at an elite rate, LeBron has been putting the league on notice and alongside Anthony Davis, they are the best team in the Western Conference so far this season.

The chemistry between LeBron and AD has been undeniable to this point. They push each other to be better and when one guy isn’t cooking the other player picks up the slack and dominates.

With a healthy, engaged and playing at their best LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and DeMarcus Cousins, the Lakers have the potential to blow teams out of the water.

With Davis, Cousins, and LeBron James, you have potentially the most physically gifted trio of players to play together at one period of time.

You could not overpower this trio. When each player gets going, they all require double teams.

Having a pick and roll with LeBron as the facilitator and Cousins or Davis as the roll man would be epic.

Floor spacing would not be a problem as each player is capable of shooting from the 3-point line and shoot it at a good enough rate to command the respect of their opponent.

With Cousins and Davis controlling the glass, the Lakers would get a lot of second-chance points and would deny their opponents the same. This would also allow for LeBron to sag on the defensive boards and get himself better placed upcourt as Davis and Cousins can hit him in stride in transition.

Add elite 3-point shooting and defense at the guard positions and the Lakers will be an extremely hard team to stop.

Realistically, the Lakers could have this team in place for next season. A fully healthy trio of LeBron, AD, Boogie and two sharpshooters. Now that is a potent team.