With an 0-3 record, the Los Angeles Lakers seem to be in disarray, and the chemistry issues they had last season don’t seem to have improved too much.
Most of the attention seems to be focused on two aspects: their piss-poor 3-point shooting and Russell Westbrook.
Westbrook has gone a combined 4-of-26 in the last two contests, and he deserves some of the blame for the team’s loss on Sunday since he took an ill-advised mid-range jumper with less than 30 seconds left instead of using some of the shot clock.
But there is another issue the Lakers have that hasn’t garnered much attention or concern.
Why is Anthony Davis starting at the 5?
Yes, he has played well, for the most part, in these first three games, and as usual, he deserves plenty of credit for being willing to play through pain and even injury after taking a nasty fall on Thursday against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Yes, sometimes it is advantageous to play Davis at the 5, as was the case during the triumphant 2020 playoffs.
But doing so as a first resort seems to be asking for trouble.
Yes, Thomas Bryant, perhaps their best choice to start at the 5, is injured, and Damian Jones appears to perhaps be no better than a replacement-level center, at least right now in the limited minutes he has played.
But starting Davis at the 5 means the Lakers are smaller and less capable defensively.
Yes, L.A. has done fairly well defensively in its last two games, giving up just 103 and 106 points, respectively.
But Davis at the 5 means no shot blocking behind him, and therefore, when he finds himself on the perimeter and gets beat off the dribble, a smaller player will have to defend a much bigger and/or taller player near the rim. It’s a problem the team often had last season.
Yes, head coach Darvin Ham wants to play fast-break basketball, and yes, the Lakers need to play that style for 48 minutes to be competitive.
But they can still do so with Davis at the 4 and Jones, or Bryant when he returns, at the 5.
Yes, Jones isn’t a 3-point shooting threat, which could muck up Ham’s 4-out, 1-in halfcourt offense.
But the Lakers did very well in the 2019-20 season with JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard, two non-shooters, playing the 5 alongside Davis. Both were lob threats at the rim, and Jones, at least conceivably, could provide that as well, which may loosen things up for others offensively a bit.
With the team at 0-3 and just beginning a rough opening stretch of the schedule, does it really have anything to lose by tinkering with the starting lineup and trying out a bigger, taller frontline? Ham has indicated he will likely use a good portion of the regular season in order to experiment with lineups.
Note that Jones did start at the 5 in L.A.’s first preseason game with Davis at the 4, and in that game, Jones had four rebounds and two blocked shots in 21 minutes as it held the Sacramento Kings to only 41 first-half points.
The Lakers’ next three games will be against the Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves and the Nuggets again, which means dealing with Nikola Jokic, Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert.
Do they really want Davis spending most of his time guarding Jokic or Gobert?
With the Lakers’ season possibly heading toward disaster again if they don’t turn things around fast, this is the time for them to at least try out a bigger starting lineup.
