When the Los Angeles Lakers’ new starting lineup was revealed, the immediate reaction of many was to wonder if there wasn’t enough offense surrounding LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Head coach Darvin Ham said the team was leaning into its defensive identity, and Jarred Vanderbilt replacing D’Angelo Russell certainly raises the ceiling on that end. But it also compromises spacing on offense.
The move additionally takes away a second creator on offense, which only increases the responsibility for James and Davis, putting more of a workload on them to start the game. But Ham is not concerned about that since the duo is playing at such a high level.
“Not really. Because it’s not just them being out there, they’re excelling at a high level,” Ham said following practice Wednesday.
“Both of those guys are playing at an extremely high level and they want to be on the floor. It’s not like, OK, we’re low on bodies so we got to force them to play. Nah. A lot of it has to do with their performance. They’re performing at a high level so it’s tough.
“But just try to get them breaks when you can but when they’re playing like that, it’s hard. Because you need it and again, they’re in a good rhythm. They don’t want to sit on the bench for long when they’ve got it going at a high level.”
Ham is correct in that Davis and James have both been performing at an extremely high level recently. Davis is averaging 29.4 points and 12.3 rebounds over his last nine games and was outstanding on Christmas Day with 40 points and 13 rebounds against the Boston Celtics.
LeBron struggled on Christmas but is still averaging 27.9 points, 8.1 rebounds and 9.6 assists over his last eight games.
Despite that, there are still legitimate concerns on the viability of the new Lakers lineup moving forward. James has always thrived with great shooting around him and the same can be said for Davis, but Vanderbilt and Cam Reddish are two non-shooters.
Slow starts have been an issue for the Lakers all season long and Ham feels this lineup can help turn that around. Ideally the team won’t be too reliant on James and Davis, but the results will have to begin showing up to ease those concerns.
Anthony Davis likes new Lakers starting lineup
Another who doesn’t mind the starting lineup change at all is Davis himself.
“It’s good, because we’ve been tested against two of the top teams in the league,” Davis said following the Christmas Day contest against the Celtics. “So it’s good for us to kind of see what we can do with it, what we need to improve at. So I like to change so far.”
The Lakers’ big man added that there will be challenges in finding ways to be effective on offense but knows that this team is built on defense and needs to be great on that end, regardless of who is in the game.
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