The Los Angeles Lakers roster looks almost completely different from a season ago with the only returning players on the team being LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Talen Horton-Tucker. The Lakers traded three rotation players for Russell Westbrook, which restricted the team financially even more than they already were before the trade.
The front office was left picking various experienced players on minimum contracts and all-in-all, the front office did a fairly good job. While the roster is old, it is really deep.
Everyone has been focusing on the age of the Los Angeles Lakers roster and not enough people are talking about how big it is. Not only do the Lakers have two of the best forwards in LeBron and AD, but the overall size of the Lakers roster is quite remarkable.
It is more than just height, though. The Lakers are long and having that great length can be an extreme asset in the NBA.
The list of the wingspans on the Los Angeles Lakers roster is truly a sight to behold.
Below is a list of the wingspans for all 13 players on the roster, from longest to shortest.
- DeAndre Jordan: Seven feet, six inches
- Anthony Davis: Seven feet, six inches
- Dwight Howard: Seven feet, five inches
- Trevor Ariza: Seven feet, two inches
- Talen Horton-Tucker: Seven feet, one inch
- LeBron James: Seven feet
- Carmelo Anthony: Seven feet
- Kent Bazemore: Seven feet
- Wayne Ellington: Six feet, 9.25 inches
- Rajon Rondo: Six feet, nine inches
- Russell Westbrook: Six feet, eight inches
- Kendrick Nunn: Six feet, seven inches
- Malik Monk: Six feet, four inches
Predicting the top three-point shooters on the Los Angeles Lakers roster in 2021-22
The Los Angeles Lakers have eight players with a wingspan of seven feet or more. That is ridiculous. While Malik Monk does bring the team average down, the fact that the team has an entire rotation alone of lengthy players gives them flexibility depending on the matchup.
For comparison’s sake, James Harden, who has pretty long arms, has a six-foot-eleven wingspan. The Los Angeles Lakers have eight players on the roster alone with longer arms than James Harden. Not only that, the Lakers have two players with longer wingspans than Kevin Durant.
Kevin Durant is the poster boy in the NBA for having long arms and both Anthony Davis and DeAndre Jordan have longer wingspans than Durant, who checks in at seven-foot-five with Dwight Howard.
The only legitimate rotation player that will have a length advantage over the Lakers is Rudy Gobert, who Anthony Davis has torched since joining the Lakers. The likes of Hassan Whiteside and Tacko Fall also have longer wingspans but they are not impactful players.
The most impressive of the bunch might just be Talen Horton-Tucker, though. Tucker is one of the longest guards in the league and with him already being naturally talented defensively, his length is going to be huge for the Lakers as they ask him to take a bigger role, especially defensively.
The Lakers roster might be old but it is deep and it is long. That is a nightmare matchup for any team to deal with.