Los Angeles Lakers: The best trait they have is their roster depth

The Los Angeles Lakers are a bonafide NBA Title-contender and are going to look to get there by banking on the depth of the roster.

The Los Angeles Lakers might not be the most attractive team for superstars to go to in the NBA right now, and maybe playing alongside LeBron James isn’t as great as it might seem on the outside looking in, but now that the dust has settled, this team is only going to get better as the season goes on. The league needs to be on notice.

The Lakers acquired Anthony Davis in mid-June. They decided to keep Kyle Kuzma, and there were many analysts shaking their heads at the decision. The Lakers have their reasons, and as a fan, everyone has to support it despite disagreeing with it.

Los Angeles (and that means both teams) entered free agency looking for big names and some possibly big contracts this summer. 34-year-old LeBron James is making more than 37 million dollars a year, 26-year-old Anthony Davis is making a little more than 27 million dollars on the final year of his current contract, and 24-year-old Kyle Kuzma is making nearly two million dollars.

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Those were the only three players on the roster during free agency. And adding the ages of each player is important to show experience. The 10 million dollars more they are paying AD over Ball, Hart and Ingram is worth it.

LeBron James played with some good players last year, but they couldn’t get him to the next level. Plus, injuries ruined their season anyway, so it was time to go back to the drawing board. The Los Angeles Lakers signed 11 players in the free agency, including four that were returning from last season and now the roster is looking pretty on paper.

Rajon Rondo, JaVale McGee, Alex Caruso, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope are all returning, while Avery Bradley, Quinn Cook, DeMarcus Cousins, Troy Daniels, Jared Dudley, Danny Green, and Dwight Howard are all newly acquired. Unfortunately, Cousins tore his ACL a month after signing while playing a pickup game.

The big question marks are Avery Bradley and Dwight Howard. Bradley did well with Boston but started to see a decline in his productivity after being traded to the Pistons, then the Clippers, then the Grizzlies. He is 28 years old — he’ll bounce back.

Dwight Howard is a big question mark for Laker fans since he wasn’t a good fit with LA in 2013. They had Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and Steve Nash on that team so he was ridiculed quick often by the perfectionists that were looking for a championship. It wasn’t as bad as they made it, but it also wasn’t the same Dwight Howard that played in Orlando.

He bounced around to five teams in four years before signing with the Los Angeles Lakers, and he seems different than the last time we saw him in a purple and gold jersey.

The Lakers have depth across the board, and it’s kind of hard to predict a starting lineup at the moment. The coaching staff can pretty much insert anyone anywhere and it’ll probably work.

LeBron and AD are starting, and that’s a given, but they can have any guards or bigs in there to give the team better looks. The guards are good at distributing the ball as well as shooting the ball and the bigs are good at defending the rim and fighting for second-chance points. Their biggest test will be how fast they gain chemistry before the season starts.

Fans got a sneak peek at what is to come this season during the Lakers’ first preseason game against the Warriors in their new San Francisco arena, and beat them 123-101.

AD looked good, LeBron looked happy, Rondo played well, and Bradley looked like the perfect secret weapon. Daniels and Caruso looked good too, so that’s going to be fun to see where they fall in the rotation. Green needs to knock down the jumpers and Howard needs to take advantage of the opportunities he gets near the rim.

The coaching staff went through a change from top to bottom as well, and it seems like they’re going to be the change the players need. Frank Vogel is an underrated head coach and should get more respect for what he did with the Indiana Pacers. Jason Kidd and Lionel Hollins are his top assistants and could have easily been the head coach in Vogel’s place.

Kidd was a great player and had the most success coaching the Brooklyn Nets. Hollins was a great coach with the Memphis Grizzlies. A lot of analysts are questioning how well the staff will get along, and many think they will end up stepping on each other’s feet. The solution can be that they just have to agree on roles like on a football team coaching staff.

Hollins was great with the Grizzlies and that team was amazing on the defensive end. He can oversee the defense. Kidd’s stint with the Nets before Hollins took over the following year showed a lot of promise and he took a team with a lot of veteran players to the second round. He can definitely oversee parts of the offense and work with guards.

Frank Vogel had a good team during his run with the Pacers, and interesting enough, Paul George was one of his key players. Vogel can oversee parts of the offense as well as work with the bigs.

Next. Ranking each Laker role player by importance. dark

That might work, and if it doesn’t, the Los Angeles Lakers are doomed. Doomed! But let’s hope they get it together so AD signs an extension.

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