Los Angeles Lakers improved for 2019-20, but are they a title contender?
Storyline 2: What will the starting lineup be and who will close games?
Managing rotations is a mind-bending combination of in-game strategy, long-term endurance, personality balancing and ego massaging. NBA players are proud, and asking a demonstrably better player to sit for the betterment of the team — a la Andre Iguodala — is a risky decision, even more so for a new head coach.
The same goes for forcing a player from his preferred position to one he has expressed distaste for.
Closing lineups are more malleable and coaches can get away with more. That is likely where Los Angeles Lakers head coach Frank Vogel will need to set his best lineups, while being more judicious with the starting lineup. LeBron James, Danny Green and Anthony Davis are locks to start; how should he fill in around them?
Vogel should close with LeBron James as the nominal point guard, Danny Green at the 2, Kyle Kuzma and Davis at the 4 and 5. That leaves one slot for a 3-and-D player, perhaps Kentavious Caldwell-Pope or Avery Bradley if the latter can pull his game together. Swapping Jared Dudley for Kyle Kuzma may be an even better move, but one the Lakers will be unlikely to take.
Who starts, however, when James will not want to run point and Davis will not want to start at center? That forces Dwight Howard into the starting lineup and almost certainly forces Kyle Kuzma into a sixth man role. With James and Green on the wing, Vogel can decide between Rajon Rondo or Quinn Cook at the 1.
A lineup with James, Rondo and Howard is going to have serious problems with spacing, but sitting Rondo behind Cook could have repercussions as well.
The starting lineup to start the year is of course not the one the Lakers will end with, both with roster tweaks and rotation adjustments to come. If the Lakers are truly locked onto the prize, they will be more willing to accept less desirable roles in order to help the team exceed. More likely is that tempers will flare at some point in the year as the team works to figure all of this out.