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With their first preseason game just a week away, the Los Angeles Lakers will hold their first practice as a team on Sunday, and the competition in their team games promises to be fierce.
Outside of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, there is no one guaranteed a spot in Frank Vogel’s starting lineup. Additionally, with the amount of talent the Lakers garnered at each position, the players on last season’s roster may see their roles diminish. So with all that context written down, let’s look at the most interesting stories to watch during training camp.
Who is the starter on the back court?
Dennis Schröder thinks he should be the Lakers’ starting point guard, and he has a strong case for why he should be. Last season with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Schröder averaged 22.1 points, 4.7 assists and 4.3 rebounds every 36 minutes.
He put those numbers in when he got off the bench, though, and Vogel could keep him in that role if he wants to follow the formula for success he had last season, which was to use LeBron James as the de facto point guard in the starting lineup. You haven’t made a decision yet one way or another:
Frank Vogel is not going to talk about Dennis Schröder’s start as the Lakers haven’t even had a practice yet.
“Too early for that, but I will definitely give Dennis a lot of consideration in the starting lineup.”
– Harrison Movie Theater (@hmfaigen) December 4, 2020
Frank Vogel says he calls Schröder “The Speeding Bullet” and that he is one of the fastest players in the league, and someone who will only aid in his counter attack.
“There are probably very few coaches in the league who are more fans of him than I am.”
– Harrison Movie Theater (@hmfaigen) December 4, 2020
If Vogel decides to keep LeBron as the Lakers’ top-floor general, guards who aren’t as skilled as Schröder – like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Wesley Matthews and Alex Caruso – may be favorites to earn a spot in the top five. . . Remember: Caldwell-Pope started every game in the postseason and showed he belonged alongside James and Davis. Wesley Matthews also started with the Milwaukee Bucks last season.
It might be the best thing for the Lakers to keep Schröder happy because he will have the ability to leave as an unrestricted free agent next summer, but at the end of the day, Vogel’s will do what he thinks will put his team in position to repeat. Things could get interesting.
Kyle Kuzma vs. Alfonzo McKinnie and Markieff Morris
Coming out of an offseason in which the Lakers lost both Avery Bradley and Danny Green, Kyle Kuzma’s growth as a perimeter defender will be crucial to the team’s success this season. The question with Kuzma, though, is whether the improvement he showed on that end last season was just another glimmer of potential, or something they can really count on.
If it’s the latter, Alfonzo McKinnie, a 6-foot-8 athletic forward with a 6-foot-9-inch wingspan, will have a chance to get into the rotation. That’s not to say McKinnie is a better player than Kuzma, or even a comparable one, but if he shows more effort and determination on the defensive end than Kuzma, he can win over Vogel.
Those minutes on the wing are not what Kuzma can afford to lose, because Markieff Morris is a better floor spacer at 4 than he is, as is Jared Dudley. Now, there is no scenario where Kuzma falls completely out of the rotation, in my opinion, because there are little things that he does well enough to justify getting significant minutes. But Kuzma cannot continue this trend of being an “expert in all trades but a master in none”. If you are to play a major role on this team, you will need to make your case clearer and more defined than it is now.
Lakers vs. Injuries
The Lakers will play their first preseason game on December 11, exactly two months after beating the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the NBA Finals for their 17th championship. His offseason was short, and that’s a cause for concern for a team with two key players who will turn 36 during the regular season.
Positional battles are fun, but there’s really only one thing the Lakers should worry about in preseason: staying healthy. If they can do that, they will at least start the season on the right note.
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