Los Angeles Lakers: Frank Vogel absurdly doubles down on big lineup

If there is one thing that Los Angeles Lakers fans want more than anything out of the starting lineup it is to see Anthony Davis play more center. Despite Davis being the perfect mold for the modern-day center, he simply won’t buy into being a full-time five.

The Lakers had to go out and get two traditional rim-protecting fives because of this in Dwight Howard and DeAndre Jordan. However, Howard missed Tuesday night’s game against the Houston Rockets and the Lakers decided to give AD the start at the five with Jordan coming off of the bench.

The Lakers started Davis, LeBron James, Kent Bazemore, Avery Bradley and Russell Westbrook; the kind of small-ball lineup that we expected when it was reported that the Lakers were trading for Westbrook.

And surprise surprise: it worked. Sure, the Lakers had to overcome a deficit against Houston to win the game, but it was clear that this small-ball lineup is the most efficient lineup that the Lakers can roll out.

Yet Frank Vogel has no intentions of the Los Angeles Lakers going small any time soon.

Los Angeles Lakers head coach Frank Vogel acknowledged the team’s success with the small-ball lineup but still doubled down on the team going big moving forward. Vogel confirmed after the game that the team intends to go big again when Howard returns from his stiff neck (h/t CBS Sports).

I totally get the desire to have two traditional bigs at the five to give Davis a break during the regular season. Davis does have a long injury history and the last thing the Lakers want is for him to get banged up by playing the five too much.

That being said, there is still value in some of these regular-season games. While it does not hurt much to start the inefficient Howard or Jordan against bad teams, the Lakers should be shelling out the best version of themselves against fellow playoff teams. That is the only way the Lakers will truly be able to measure themselves against the rest of the league.

Plus, the team needs to get some familiarity with this kind of rotation. If the Los Angeles Lakers are going to make a run at the NBA Championship then Anthony Davis has to play more center. The team is not getting far with Howard and Jordan playing a combined 25 minutes per game.

The spacing is just too bad with Russell Westbrook and all of the flaws with the Westbrook signing will be in the limelight. The best way to mitigate that problem is to space the floor, go small and put AD at the five.

Their professionals and they will figure it out but with Davis hesitating to play the five throughout his entire career, it is important he gets these minutes in with this group of players this season. When you’re playing some of the best teams in the league small factors such as unfamiliarity can be the difference.

Frank Vogel and the Los Angeles Lakers are obviously doubling down on going big to appeal to their star forward… who should really be a star center.