With a week to go before the Los Angeles Lakers start the 2022-23 regular season, there are some unanswered questions about their starting lineup.
The biggest is who will start, other than LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
But another that may have emerged more recently is whether Davis will start at the power forward or center spot.
In L.A.’s first preseason game, he started at the 4. On Sunday versus the Golden State Warriors, he began the game at center.
Head coach Darvin Ham was asked if he is considering starting Davis at the 5 full-time, and he said he absolutely is considering doing so.
“Absolutely. I mean, it’s not a knockdown, drag-out, bruiser body type game anymore, you know, the game we play at this level,” the head coach said. “So AD starting at the five is definitely on the table. That’s something that’s under heavy, heavy consideration. Here, we want to put our best five out there to start the game and be able to have a really solid rotation. Once we get to the end of the game, should that game be close, you know, we can have a variety of things in our back pocket and throw at the opposing team, but AD starting at the five. I think that’s, that’s definitely plausible.”
Davis has played in just two of the Lakers’ first four preseason games because of lower back tightness, but when he has played, he has looked outstanding.
He had 11 rebounds in just 16 minutes in their preseason opener last week, and on Sunday he tallied 28 points in 21 minutes. His 3-point shot also looks improved; he went 2-of-4 from beyond the arc in both contests.
During Davis’ first two seasons with the Purple and Gold, he played the majority of his minutes at the 4. Last season, however, he was at the 5 for a whopping 76% of his minutes according to basketballreference.com.
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