Los Angeles Lakers: Rotational fallout after suspensions

Replacing Rondo

This one is more obvious than replacing Brandon Ingram. Lonzo Ball should step into the starting lineup and be given the chance to become the starter moving forward. Rondo has been great in the first two games, averaging 13.0 points, 10.5 assists and 5.5 rebounds on 57.1 percent shooting from the field. The fit with Lonzo running the show just makes more sense.

Rondo is a ball-dominating guard that is great at running an offense. But this team already has a player that controls the half-court in LeBron James. The Lakers don’t need another ball-handler, they need spacing and players that swing the ball around the perimeter. This is why Lonzo playing with LeBron was one of the most exciting on-court storylines heading into the season.

Lonzo is shooting 41.7 percent on 6.0 3-point attempts per game. The sample size is small, but his altered jump shot already looks smoother and he’s shooting with confidence through two games. If he can hover around 37-41 percent for a full season, the star potential everybody saw in him will arrive quickly.

He’s even driving the ball more. The mid-range jumpers are still far and few between, but the threat of his 3-point shot will allow him to attack closeouts and look for teammates. The ball will be moving in the half-court and in LeBron’s hands even more when the game slows down, something that should make everybody in Los Angeles comfortable.

Defensively, the Lakers have been so porous that it’s tough to gauge how much of a falloff there will be without Rondo. Lonzo is an above-average defender in his own right, and facing the Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets to start the season will inflate your defensive rating given their firepower, so who knows how the defense will look?

Alex Caruso will be handed spot minutes after Lonzo, and he’s more than capable of playing 15-20 minutes while running the offense and playing hard. But Lonzo, Josh Hart and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope getting more minutes is not the worst thing, especially given how much they leaned on Rondo the early part of the season.