The Los Angeles Lakers have most of their roster set, but there are some needs that still need to be addressed.
The Los Angeles Lakers have made some excellent moves this winter including the signings of Montrezl Harrell, Marc Gasol, and Wesley Matthews and trade for Dennis Schroder, but there is still more that needs to be done.
The Lakers roster as it currently stands is more than capable of running it back and winning another Larry O’Brien trophy, but every good team needs to have veteran depth and every box checked.
It can certainly be argued that the Lakers need to rely on their depth a lot less than other teams do given how amazing their core of LeBron James and Anthony Davis is. However, in a grueling regular season that features the shortest off-season in American sports history, the Lakers need to get the necessary pieces in place to be able to spell their key guys when the circumstances of a given game necessitate it.
The Lakers figure to roll out a starting lineup that features Marc Gasol, Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Alex Caruso, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, give or take a few names.
Both Gasol and LeBron have been in the league for quite some time and the Lakers need to do everything they can to make sure they are properly rested over the course of the regular season. This is the exact situation where load management makes sense.
The Lakers are able to roll out a second unit that features Montrezl Harrell, Markieff Morris, Kyle Kuzma, Wesley Matthews, and Dennis Schroder. The team also has some younger options that they can mix and match based on upcoming matchups including the likes of Talen Horton-Tucker who has shown loads of promise in limited minutes.
Given the construction of the roster at present, the Lakers have three needs to complete the roster. Let’s take a look at how the Lakers can get better which somehow seems difficult to do.