With training camp underway for the Los Angeles Lakers and the first preseason game set to take place this Sunday at Staples Center, the attention turns to when head coach Frank Vogel decides who will be in the starting lineup.
Following Lakers’ practice on Thursday, Vogel gave somewhat of a timeline for when he’ll be ready to make a decision on the team’s starting five. Although three of those players are obvious with LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook, the two other starters are anything but set in stone at this point.
“I would say we’re certainly not going to have any decisions made before the last two preseason games,” Vogel said. “Hopefully, we’ll have some direction at that point, but we could still be looking at those last two games. Try one, one way and other, the other way.
“The first four games, we’ll probably have a lot of guys in and out of the lineup. We won’t be whole in those games. Hopefully, we will be the last two. But like I said, I’m not putting a real timeline on it. Hopefully, we should have some real direction by then.”
With so many new faces on this revamped Lakers roster, it’s no surprise the preseason will be a feeling-out process for Vogel and his coaching staff that will take some time.
Many players will be in contention for the starting roles, with Trevor Ariza, Wayne Ellington, Carmelo Anthony, Kent Bazemore, Talen Horton-Tucker and Malik Monk as potential candidates to be a starter.
In the meantime, the team will continue to build chemistry in practice sessions while preparing for the preseason opener against the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday.
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