What Will the Los Angeles Lakers' Starting Lineup Look Like?
Point Guard: D'Angelo Russell
Entering his ninth NBA season and his second stint with the Lakers after they drafted him with the second overall pick in the 2015 draft, Russell is coming off a 2022-23 season in which he was dealt to the Lakers in a three-team trade with Minnesota and Utah that allowed him to supplant Russell Westbrook as the primary point guard.
The Lakers went 12-5 in his 17 games, and he re-signed this summer for two years and $38 million despite playing poorly in the playoffs against Denver and losing his spot in the starting rotation in Game 4. Still, his overall body of work was promising as Los Angeles played well down the stretch to make the play-in and the playoffs, and management clearly feels a full season with the Lakers will produce better results.
Russell is a career 17.7 points per game scorer, and he made 41.4% of his 3-pointers with the Lakers last season.
Shooting Guard: Cam Reddish
While many thought Austin Reaves would be a starter after signing a $54 million extension this offseason, it's been Reddish manning that spot with Reaves coming off the bench. Reddish has been the starter since mid-November when head coach Darvin Ham made the move to bench Reaves after struggling through the start of the season. Through 15 games as a starter, Reddish is averaging 8.5 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.8 steals.
Update: With Reddish sidelined for at least two weeks with an ankle sprain, Austin Reaves will be sliding into the Lakers' starting lineup.
Small Forward: Taurean Prince
Prior to the season starting, it looked like Jarred Vanderbilt would be starting at power forward which would move LeBron to more of a small forward role. As of late December, however, only D'Angelo Russell has more starts under his belt than Prince while Vanderbilt is averaging just 14 minutes per game.
Power Forward: LeBron James
OK, where do we start? Well, the guy has scored more points than anyone in NBA history, and his next point will be his 38,653rd. He averaged 28.9 points per game last season but appeared in only 55 games. James has not appeared in all 82 games since 2017-18 when he was with the Cleveland Cavaliers. This will be his sixth season with the Lakers, and he will be looking to shoot at least 50 percent from the field for the 13th time in the past 15 seasons.
Ahead of the start of the season, James is on the board at FanDuel Sportsbook at +5000 to win Most Valuable Player for those who believe in dinosaurs and things happening for a fifth time.
Center: Anthony Davis
Davis is on the board at +2900 at FanDuel for Most Valuable Player, and yes, it is a rarity to see one of James' teammates listed with shorter odds. But Davis is projected to be more of a workhouse after he, too, missed multiple games over the past several seasons due to injuries. Davis has never played more than 75 games in a season, and his highest tally in his four seasons with the Lakers was 62 games in 2019-20, the year after he came over from the New Orleans Pelicans.
Davis averaged 12.5 rebounds per game last season, a career-high, and averaged 25.9 points per game. When he is operating at peak efficiency, he is a top-10 talent in the NBA as evidenced by his eight All-Star appearances.
Who is on the Los Angeles Lakers Bench?
The Lakers had a very good offseason in terms of adding depth to a roster that has been changing constantly during James' time in Los Angeles. The turnover has been partly because of trades and partly because of injuries.
Gabe Vincent was a key component of the Miami Heat team that made it all the way to the NBA Finals as a No. 8 seed. Cam Reddish was let go by Portland after being acquired by the Blazers in the trade that sent Josh Hart to New York.
Hachimura came over from the Wizards in the deal that sent Kyle Kuzma to the nation's capital, and he will be in the running for Sixth Man of the Year if the Lakers have a successful season. He is on the board for this award at FanDuel at +6500.
The addition of Wood makes it eight teams in as many years since he went undrafted out of UNLV. If he ever decides to settle down his act and become an impact player in one place for a number of years, perhaps being teammates with James and Davis will bring an end to his journeyman status. When he was with the Rockets from 2020 through 2022, he was very productive for a very poor team.
Lastly, the biggest question mark is whether the Lakers will get anything of meaning from their first-round draft pick, Jalen Hood-Schifino, who was the Big Ten freshman of the Year for an Indiana Hoosiers team that was a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament in 2022.
Who Is the Lakers’ 6th Man?
Since being benched in favor of Cam Reddish, Austin Reaves has slid into the sixth man role for the Lakers. In fact, he's currently the betting favorite to win the NBA's Sixth Man Award on most betting apps, including FanDuel and DraftKings California Sportsbook.
As noted above, the Lakers have done a good job of adding depth to a team that definitely needs it if they want to make a legitimate run at an NBA Championship. LeBron James will be turning 39 at the end of December and Anthony Davis has dealt with numerous injuries over the course of his career. Gabe Vincent and Rui Hachimura are both averaging more than 23 minutes per game despite having three starts combined, all of which have gone to Hachimura.
Get to Know the Los Angeles Lakers Front Office
Who Is the Lakers' Head Coach?
Darvin Ham played for six NBA teams and spent time in Spain and the Philippines before moving into the coaching ranks. His first stop was in the D-League and then in the pros with the Lakers, Atlanta Hawks, and Milwaukee Bucks, where he was a protégé of Mike Budenholzer. Ham was part of the coaching staff that helped lead the Bucks to the 2021 NBA title. He reportedly has a strained relationship with Nuggets coach Michael Malone. Ham is on the board at FanDuel at +1600 for Coach of the Year.
Who Is the Lakers’ General Manager?
Rob Pelinka was one of the top agents in the NBA, representing the likes of Kobe Bryant, James Harden, Carlos Boozer, Buddy Hield, and Kevin Durant before ditching that business in 2017 when he was offered the top executive job with the Lakers in a power shakeup that took out Magic Johnson, Jim Buss, and Mitch Kupchak as the top decision makers. Pelinka played college basketball for the University of Michigan, where he was a member of the "Fab Five" team that included Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, and Juwan Howard.
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Author
Chris Sheridan is a veteran NBA writer who has been covering the league since 1992, with a specialty in international basketball after being credentialed for every Olympics since 1996 in Atlanta. He has been covering sports gambling since 2018.
