The Los Angeles Lakers have joined the NBA arms race and are one of many teams that will boast two All-Star level players on their roster.
Luckily for the Lakers, they have possibly the best of those tandems with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. They also have head coach Frank Vogel that has previously coached some All-Star players during his time with the Indiana Pacers.
Before actually coaching any games, Vogel has made a solid impression with his vision for the team and what’s in store given the players he has. Not only that but James being in attendance at both Vogel’s introductory press conference as well as the one with Davis shows that he is also committed to his new head coach’s vision.
Vogel believes that James and Davis have extremely complementary styles of play and when one or both of them find themselves double-teamed, he has faith that they have the personnel to kill opposing defenses for it.
“I would say that if you’re the towel guy, they were misusing you. I don’t care how old you are. In terms of the two of them, they complement each other,” Vogel said.
“Both are guys that are going to command double teams in any action you put them in. They can draw a lot of attention, so to have a second star to be a counterpunch to each other is really going to have the two of them complement each other.”
However, in terms of a starting lineup, Vogel said he hasn’t made any decisions despite previous reports that James would be the team’s starting point guard moving forward.
“I have some ideas but nothing has been decided yet. It’s way too early for that,” said Vogel. “A lot of staff meetings we’re going to have, we’re going to study a lot of tape and see how guys play together in training camp. That will all play itself out.”
Likely, the only safe assumptions to make with regard to the starting lineup is that James and Davis will both be in it and will most likely be joined by Danny Green. After that, the final two spots are a complete mystery.
The good news is general manager Rob Pelinka has done a great job putting together a versatile team, meaning that Vogel really could go any way with this and it may just work out. As has been said before, having too many good players is never a bad problem to have.
