The Los Angeles Lakers’ three biggest challenges in the Orlando bubble

3. Developing the best player rotation

The Los Angeles Lakers will clinch the top seed in the West with any combination of just three wins or Clippers losses. That means that winning all or even most of the eight remaining regular-season games should not be a top priority.

What is more important is the opportunity that Frank Vogel and his coaching staff will have to determine how to best deploy their troops once they head into postseason battle. That will be tricky for several reasons.

Now that LeBron and AD are well-rested, we can expect Vogel to increase their playoff minutes. This season, each has played 34-35 minutes per game. How much more court time can Vogel squeeze out of his stars? Best guess here is 37-38 MPG, and perhaps 40 in a tight playoff game.

Davis has been playing about 2/3 of his minutes at the 4, the balance at the 5. At which position will he play his extra minutes? He has been extremely effective at both, so the decision will likely vary depending on match-ups.

Avery Bradley’s absence leaves a hole in the starting lineup. No other player can set the tone defensively the way he did, but the expectation is that Caldwell-Pope will move into his starting spot. KCP has shot the ball well this season (47% overall, 39% from deep).

Fans hope he has recovered from his horrendous 3-point slump. In the last 7 games before the break, he converted only 6 of his 22 attempts (27%).

If KCP is indeed now a starter, who will be the next man up to step into his role coming off the bench? Candidates include fan-favorite Caruso, one of the two new acquisitions, Waiters or Smith, or even Quinn Cook, who’s been buried deep on the bench even though he’s shooting 38% behind the arc and has postseason experience from deep runs with the Warriors the last two seasons.

RELATED: Why KCP is better than you think

Then there is Rondo, who seemingly has the support of Vogel, Davis and James but not the Lakers fan base. He will probably continue to get the nod at back-up point guard when LeBron rests. Just how much playing time he deserves to get will be hotly debated.

Some fans hope for the return of “Playoff Rondo”, but don’t count on it happening this postseason for a 34-year-old who has slowed down significantly and is a defensive liability.

After an excellent start this season shooting-wise, teams stopped giving him so much room to shoot, and his conversion rate, especially on 3-pointers, sunk dramatically. In the last 11 games, he made just 4 of his last 21 long-range shots, a dismal 19%.

Throughout the season, Vogel enjoyed the luxury of choosing players from a deep, veteran roster, and often strayed from a set substitution pattern. Even with the loss of Bradley, the additions of Morris, Waiters and Smith make playing time decisions even more problematic.

In the postseason, he will get to choose from among 12 talented players: probable starters James, Davis, McGee, KCP and Green, plus Howard, Morris, Kuzma, Caruso, Rondo, Waiters and Smith.

It is very difficult if not impossible to use a 12-player rotation. It gets more complicated when he considers granting minutes here and there to excellent shooters Cook and veteran Jared Dudley, who is hit 47% from deep in limited action.

We can expect that Vogel will use the remaining 8 regular-season games to experiment with different lineups, mixing and matching to see which combinations seem to work best. Some of that tinkering might even continue in the playoffs, depending on match-ups and game situations.

The Los Angeles Lakers are well-positioned to earn their 17th NBA title. But they will have to overcome the three internal challenges described here in addition to several talented, hungry other teams.