Los Angeles Lakers head coach Frank Vogel seems to be pleased with the way management has built around LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
The Lakers made one of the bigger moves of the offseason, sending Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, Brandon Ingram and three first-round draft picks to the Pelicans for Davis. Now it will be Vogel's job to optimize the roster, and he says it all starts with James and Davis.
Vogel joined ESPN during their broadcast of Wednesday night's Summer League game against the New York Knicks to discuss his mindset. The recently-hired coach says shooting will be “a major piece” of their game plan:
Via Anthony Irwin of silverscreenandroll.com:
“Well, obviously, it starts with those two guys in LeBron and AD, and what kind of players that complement them. Obviously, the shooting is a major piece… The only guys that aren’t quote unquote known as shooters are Rajon (Rondo) and JaVale (McGee), and Rajon has improved dramatically over the last few years from the 3-point line.
“So we’re gonna have guys all over the court that carry the threat. JaVale is going to carry the extreme lob threat, but even a guy like DeMarcus Cousins playing the five position is going to give us five shooters out there.
“That’s where there’s been the most success in the modern NBA, is playing with as much space as possible, and when you put space around elite offensive players like AD and LeBron, you’re going to have a lot of success. So that’s where it started, we’re going to make sure that everybody can at least pull their weight on the defensive end, so we got a lot of two-way players too.”
The Lakers finished the 2018-19 regular season with a 37-45 overall record, which left them just out of postseason contention (10th in the Western Conference). It was the team's sixth consecutive season out of the playoffs. Now, though, with the acquisitions of Davis and Danny Green, Los Angeles will be looking to get back into the hunt.
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