The start of the 2023-24 NBA season is just days away and the Los Angeles Lakers get the honors of kicking things off when they hit the road to take on the the reigning NBA champion Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night.
The Lakers are going to be forced to watch the Nuggets hoist their first banner in franchise history, adding insult to injury as they’re the ones that swept them out of the playoffs. Los Angeles had to hear plenty of of comments from Denver over the offseason about their series win, so the team should be even more motivate to come out fired up.
During the preseason, the biggest question fans wanted answered was who would be the fifth starter alongside D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, LeBron James and Anthony Davis. After six preseason games, Darvin Ham announced that Taurean Prince won the job and would be in the starting group against the Nuggets.
Prince earned the role as he looked like a perfect fit next to the rest of the starters, but this meant Rui Hachimura would be relegated to the bench. However, Ham explained that Hachimura could be more beneficial for them in a reserve role, via Jovan Buha of The Athletic:
Ham says that the team believes they can extract more out of Rui Hachimura offensively with him coming off of the bench.
— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) October 21, 2023
During this past postseason, Hachimura worked his way into the starting five because he was able to knock down 3-pointers and create his own shot in the half court. However, it looks like Ham and the coaching staff are more interested in prioritizing a defensive specialist to begin games and letting Hachimura get his own against opposing bench units.
Jarred Vanderbilt was also in consideration to start, but the forward has been dealing with a heel injury and is unlikely to play in the opener. However, Ham did acknowledge that Vanderbilt could start at some point depending how the current starting group looks.
Regardless, Los Angeles will have a tall task ahead of them and hopefully they can begin the regular season with a win.
Gabe Vincent expected to be available for Opening Night
Like Vanderbilt, Gabe Vincent missed some time in the preseason because he was dealing with back tightness. However, it looks like the team was being cautious with the guard as he is expected to suit up against Denver on Tuesday.
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