The Lakers played Malik Monk and Carmelo Anthony alongside Russ, LeBron and AD with the first unit at today’s practice. Frank Vogel says he is continuing to try out different combinations and evaluate how it looks.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) October 5, 2021
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October 5, 2021 4 Comments
Experimentation rolls on. I think myself, Tom, Jamie, Stu Lantz, Michael, Buba and everyone I didn’t mention should get used to the idea, thst the starting 5 is a static, set your watch unit. I think this is more Allman Brothers, John Bonham 20 min solo experimentation. 🤔🧐👀👀👀
lol, I think we’ll slowly see FV come around, at least that’s my hope. You never know what actual metrics a team uses to evaluate players/line ups/etc. But I have a hard time seeing DAJ as the starting center. Dwight makes way more sense if you’re going to go that route.
But honestly, hearing AD speak with fire about playing center (and starting) makes me think he’s going to force his way there. LBJ playing a ton at the 4? Don’t see it except to close games or foul trouble. Bron won’t bang all season long.
Frank has always done this at the start of camp and it’s understandable, especially in light of just getting players to be active and see who might work well together. I do like what he said about wanting to get a set starting lineup and sticking with it. I’ve always thought that was important as a coach and player. Allows you to build continuity and rapport and creates stability for your players as everybody finds their role or roles. Of course, to make it work, you have to chose the right five players to start.
That’s obviously where the worry comes in because Frank has a clear bias to like having a defensive oriented low post center and a pair of bigs to anchor his defenses. He may be even more intent on doing that this season since Pelinka screwed him over with Gasol, Harrell, and Drummond last season. Starting DeAndre Jordan, which apparently something Vogel is considering, would be Frank trying to replicate what he thinks is a positive impact of JaVale McGee starting on keeping Anthony Davis healthy for the playoffs. In reality, what he’s doing is sticking to his longheld principles that more bigs means better defense. We see that principle to be false more and more every year.
AD should start and close games and halves. That’s the only way you have two slots to optimize the perimeter shooting and defense to go with LeBron, AD, and Russ. Starting Jordan or Howard would be like cutting your own throat before the tipin. The good news is, based on the play we’ve seen so far, is that neither DeAndre or Dwight are going to be able to show enough to tempt Frank to participate in what could be his own professional suicide by starting Jordan or Howard.
Normally I would agree with this pretty much 100%: the empirical evidence indicates that Frank would waaaaay rather start a traditional big.
But. This is a pretty big but so it deserves it’s own paragraph.
He’s equally tied to the happiness of his superstars as he is his infatuation with a traditional five. Does he really want to piss AD off before the season even kicks off? I don’t think so.
Now, if DAJ or DH has a super positive impact on the defensive rating when they start…that’s a horse of a different color and I think Frank would sit AD down and say “You’ll close ’em out, but we’re starting games off like this.” and if there are supportive numbers AD would come around.
Frankly, I still don’t think it matters.