Los Angeles Lakers head coach Frank Vogel should get some credit for how he has been willing to adapt and adjust to his new roster for the 2021-22 season.
Vogel has historically preferred to play two traditional big men, running counter to the current NBA trend of going smaller and having only one of those types of players on the floor. However, as of recently Vogel has changed up his philosophy and has had Anthony Davis starting at center, a move that seemed to be inevitable after all the talk about it during the offseason.
With Davis playing more of his minutes at center, it has relegated DeAndre Jordan to the bench and he has already racked up a couple of DNPs the past week. Vogel revealed that he has already spoken to Jordan about the move, saying it was best for the team.
“We don’t want anybody, rotation guys to go too many consecutive DNPs,” Vogel said.” We want to keep everybody fresh. The conversation was simple. This is something that’s best for our team right now and everybody in a Lakers uniform this year signed up for a role to come in and do whatever the team needs and sacrifice when necessary, so it’s as simple as that.”
So far, the move has paid off as Los Angeles has looked better on both ends of the floor with Davis manning the middle. Due to the rash of injuries, the Lakers have had to play smaller almost out of necessity, but the new formula has seemed to invigorate the team and this may have to be their new identity going forward.
Jordan should still see spot minutes or starts throughout the regular season as it is unreasonable to expect Davis to play center exclusively, but how much he actually see the floor remains to be seen. Vogel expects his big men to sacrifice for the sake of team success, and it will be interesting to see if that holds up.
Frank Vogel explains decision to start Carmelo Anthony
Alongside sliding Davis to center, Vogel made another change to his starting lineup and inserted Carmelo Anthony. Anthony is widely expected to go back to the bench once James is healthy, but Vogel said that starting Anthony made the most sense and that he wanted to give opponents a different look.
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