All summer long, people wondered and discussed what the Los Angeles Lakers’ starting lineup would be after the addition of Russell Westbrook.
While many reports indicated they would go small with Anthony Davis at center, the injury to Trevor Ariza may have put a wrench in their plans and Frank Vogel ultimately decided to go with his usual big starting lineup with DeAndre Jordan at center.
Through two games though, the Lakers currently sit at 0-2 after falling to the Golden State Warriors and the Phoenix Suns.
After Saturday’s practice, Frank Vogel discussed if the slow start to the season is cause for re-evaluating his starting lineup.
“After each game, we’ll consider each option,” Vogel said. “I’m not going to release who is starting tomorrow yet, but there’s some good and some bad with that group. And what I’m trying to evaluate is the areas that are bad, a lot of them are correctable in terms of execution with that group that can have that group be more successful.
“More than just fundamentally they don’t fit together because of whatever skillset, shooting, size, speed, all of those types of things. You look at them sort of separately and right now, it feels like our execution for the details of our defense, in particular, can really be a lot better and then obviously some offensive spacing things as well. So we’re still a work in progress and we’re still evaluating.”
Even though Vogel has yet to announce his starting lineup for Sunday night’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him stick with the same group of Westbrook, Kent Bazemore, LeBron James, Davis and Jordan.
That group has actually posted a plus-4.1 net rating together in 21 minutes across the two games, so even though many prefer the Lakers to go small, Vogel is going to take as much time as he needs to figure out the right groups that work together.
Ellington remains out on Sunday
Wayne Ellington is a player battling for a starting spot on the Lakers during training camp but has been missing so far this season due to a minor hamstring strain.
Vogel revealed on Saturday that the sharpshooter will remain out for Sunday night’s game, although the hope is that he will be able to return to action sometime next week.
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