At long last, Anthony Davis is a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. After a lengthy buildup and a surprising trade only a few days after the completion of the NBA Finals, the Lakers “got their man” by giving up pretty much everything that wasn’t bolted down on the roster, including every young prospect except for Kyle Kuzma and a glut of draft picks for the next nine years.
Despite that huge payment to acquire Davis, the Lakers are looking quite good in a wide-open Western Conference that has seen a mammoth amount of movement among the best players in the league.
Speaking of movement, Davis has long been outspoken on the movement toward small-ball lineups, as he prefers to play as a power forward rather than as a center.
In years past, that has led his team (then the Pelicans) to acquire a revolving door of centers in order to pair with Davis, including DeMarcus Cousins. Now, according to Mike Trudell of Spectrum SN, Davis is a bit more open to shifting over to the five if necessary.
Asked Anthony Davis about how the game has evolved w/teams going small, and he was very clear that he prefers to play the 4, but he then qualified to Vogel that he’d certainly play some 5: “The game has become so positionless … it really doesn’t matter."
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) July 13, 2019
With a new coach and an almost entirely new roster, the Lakers will have to figure things out on the fly, and that means various different lineup configurations.
Perhaps games will start with Davis’ former teammate Boogie Cousins at the five and finish with AD playing center, or perhaps JaVale McGee will stay slotted in at the five to allow Davis to patrol the four man spot.
Either way, new Lakers coach Frank Vogel and his assistant Jason Kidd have a lot of work to do as the season progresses.
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