Los Angeles Lakers: How to divvy up the playoff minutes

The minutes and rotation will change for the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Playoffs.

The Los Angeles Lakers will return to action at Disney World in Orlando, Florida with eight regular-season games before jumping into the playoffs.

Those eight games are extremely important to the Lakers. While they reasonably are not going to move in the standings at all, those eight games present an opportunity for the team to get their legs underneath them as well as an opportunity for Frank Vogel to figure some things out.

Once the playoffs hit, the rotations typically shrink and we see the minutes per game change. However, in the case of the Los Angeles Lakers, there is actually a good reason to still run a reasonable 10-man rotation instead of shrinking down to eight or so guys.

We have seen teams like the Toronto Raptors be successful by running an eight-man rotation in the playoffs but with how deep the Lakers are, 10 men just make more sense. Teams such as the Golden State Warriors have recently implemented a 10-man playoff rotation and were obviously very successful.

The minutes will still change, though, and here is our best guess for how they should be divvied up.

Los Angeles Lakers’ potential playoff minutes:

PG: Avery Bradley, 25 minutes (+0.8)

Avery Bradley is essentially already on a 25-minute rotation with the Los Angeles Lakers as he is averaging 24.2 minutes per game. Of course, the team is not going to have each player play an exact number of minutes, but Bradley’s role should not change and Vogel should be aiming to play him around 25 minutes.

He is the perfect three and D point guard that does not need the basketball to share the court with LeBron James. The only concern is whether or not Bradley comes to Orlando.

SG: Danny Green, 30 minutes (+4.9 )

Danny Green is also a 25-minute player for the Los Angeles Lakers this season but with the rotation still shrinking some and some other guards not getting any playing, he will see the court more.

It makes sense for Green to get the most minutes out of anyone in the backcourt as he is the best true three and D guy and has more playoff experience than anyone on the roster not named LeBron James.

SF: LeBron James, 40 minutes (+5.1)

The actual number might be a little lower as in the first two rounds the Lakers can get away with LeBron playing less but against the Clippers and Bucks, he is going to have to play 40+ minutes per game. LeBron is averaging a career-low in minutes per game at 34.9, so this jump is nothing new or special to him.

PF: Anthony Davis, 40 minutes (+5.7)

Anthony Davis and LeBron James have both been on a 35-minute rotation this season and like LeBron, Davis’ workload needs to be bumped up an extra five minutes.

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While he shared his desire to just be a power forward before the season, Davis is going to have to play more center in the playoffs to get the Lakers’ best lineup out there and that will reflect in the minutes played for other guys.

C: JaVale McGee, 15 minutes (-1.8)

JaVale McGee gets slightly fewer minutes as Davis plays more center, for the reasons we already mentioned. McGee’s role is essentially the same.

6. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, 25 minutes (-0.4)

KCP’s minutes should stay exactly the same as they have been this season. After a slow start, KCP has really blossomed into one of the most important players on the Los Angeles Lakers.

7. Kyle Kuzma, 20 minutes (-4.6 )

Kyle Kuzma goes from a 25-minute player to a 20-minute player, which might not seem like a lot of sense considering we are going to see Davis play more of the five. However, we are also adding another forward that is going to share minutes with Kuzma that didn’t for most of the season.

8. Markieff Morris, 15 minutes (+0.2)

Markieff Morris has only played eight games with the Los Angeles Lakers and I think we have seen the kind of workload he is going to get. His 15 minutes is what led to Kuzma getting less than he is in the regular season.

9. Dwight Howard, 15 minutes (-4.2)

Dwight Howard will see around five minutes less on the court. This means that Davis will play six more minutes at the center position than he already is.

10. Rajon Rondo, 15 minutes (-5.5)

Rajon Rondo still deserves a role off the bench on this team because of his experience, but he does deserve less of a role. Over half of his 15 minutes played per game will be as the facilitator during the eight minutes that LeBron is on the bench.

All of this adds up to 240 minutes and there is noticeably no Alex Caruso nor Dion Waiters. The backcourt is already four guys deep, which is more than enough for the playoffs.