As things stand, the Los Angeles Lakers do not have any move lined up to add a fifth starting-caliber player from the outside. Jonathan Kuminga continues to elude them. P.J. Washington is not on his way to Hollywood. Things have reached a pause for the Lakers.
If that is how things continue to go then Los Angeles may be forced field an open competition for who claims the fifth starter spot among their internal guys. Lakers reporter Jovan Buha wondered if the losers of that competition could miss out on minutes in the rotation altogether.
Should JJ Redick be intent on running a nine-man rotation again, that is a very real and quite brutal consequence for the players who do not win the starting gig. Taking stock of how the rotation could shape up does point to that possibility.
A nine-man Lakers rotation leaves no room for the losers of the competition
The four other starters in Los Angeles should be fairly straightforward. Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, Walker Kessler, and Quentin Grimes have those spots mostly secure. Similarly, Collin Sexton and Sandro Mamukelashvili should have minutes off the bench locked down.
Those six alone already make up two thirds of a nine-man rotation.
Who are the players that would theoretically compete for the fifth starter spot? Buha and his guests, Trevor Lane and Iztok Franko, debated those points, but let us settle on a consensus of Ziaire Williams, Jake LaRavia, and Matisse Thybulle here.
If the Lakers are prioritizing developing their youth, Cameron Carr and Adou Thiero will lock down the eighth and ninth spots in the rotation. That means in the nine-man rotation hypothesized, there is only room left for the winner of the starting forward job.
JJ Redick could have just enough reason to explore a deeper Lakers rotation
The real question for the losers of the starter competition might be whether Redick is willing to extend the rotation beyond his preferred number of nine from last season. At the very least, maybe the third-year head coach would be willing to do that for the regular season.
Once the 2027 NBA Playoffs come around, the Lakers would naturally be forced to shrink their rotation to maximize the minutes of their best players. Until then, their investment in the depth of this roster could warrant a looser approach from Redick.
If that is the case, the losers of the fifth starter competition could still find some minutes toward the back end of the rotation. Right now, though, there are only previous examples to look at for gauging how Redick will deploy his players. Nine is the magic number to reference until proven otherwise. That could mean a lot of long nights of being glued to the bench for two of Williams, LaRavia, and Thybulle.
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