Projecting Lakers’ starting, closing lineup for 2022-23 season: Who will join LeBron James and Anthony Davis?

After a disastrous 2021-22 campaign, the Lakers knew that they needed to make changes to their roster.

Los Angeles’ operation still revolves around LeBron James and Anthony Davis, but there are a few new supporting pieces. During the offseason, the Lakers acquired role players such as Patrick Beverley, Dennis Schroder, Thomas Bryant and Damian Jones. As part of that process, they bid farewell to multiple veterans from the 33-49 squad that failed to reach the NBA Playoffs.

They also hired a new head coach in Darvin Ham, who will fill Frank Vogel’s old seat after most recently serving as an assistant coach for the Bucks. He will have to answer a tough question before the 2022-23 season tips off: Which players should start alongside James and Davis on Day 1?

MORE: Breaking down Lakers’ 2022-23 schedule

Projecting Lakers’ starting lineup for 2022-23 season

The Lakers deployed 41 different starting lineups in 2021-22, and there wasn’t a single group that logged more than seven total starts. Ham doesn’t want to go down that same road of inconsistency, so finding the right combination of players early in his tenure will be key.

James and Davis are locks at small forward and power forward, respectively, but nailing down the starting backcourt won’t be easy for Ham. On the Sept. 9 edition of “The Lowe Post” podcast, ESPN’s Zach Lowe and Ramona Shelburne predicted that Russell Westbrook and Kendrick Nunn will be the starting guards, assuming that Nunn has fully recovered from a knee injury. (To be clear, they were discussing what Los Angeles will do, not what it should do.)

Ham may choose to keep Westbrook in the starting lineup as a show of confidence in the former NBA MVP. Westbrook has started in every game since the 2009-2010 season, so he likely would not be that excited about a demotion to the bench.

However, unless Westbrook is willing to alter his style of play, Beverley and Austin Reaves should fit better next to James and Davis. They don’t have highly decorated careers like Westbrook, but Beverley and Reaves are both better outside shooters and defenders than the nine-time All-Star. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Beverley or Reaves eventually replace Westbrook.

And then there’s Schroder, who signed up for a second stint with the Lakers after leading Germany with 22.1 points per game at this year’s EuroBasket tournament. On the Sept. 19 episode of “NBA Today,” Shelburne noted that the Lakers viewed Westbrook as a starter despite the fact that they had added yet another guard to the mix, but it’s not difficult to imagine a scenario in which Schroder’s minutes rise if Westbrook struggles.

As for the last spot, the center battle will come down to Bryant and Jones. Lowe suggested that Jones was the frontrunner, but Bryant’s shooting could ultimately be the determining factor for Ham. The Lakers shot 34.7 percent from 3-point range as a team in 2021-22, a mark that was higher than only eight other teams.

While Bryant won’t be confused for Stephen Curry, he has shot 35.0 percent on 263 3-point attempts in his career. Jones has only launched 43 triples, hitting them at a 30.2 percent clip. James and Davis are going to need space to work, and Bryant has at least shown some level of comfortability operating beyond the arc.

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Projecting Lakers’ closing lineup for 2022-23 season

For Ham, finalizing a closing lineup could be even more tricky than selecting his starters. The Westbrook problem will loom large, as he was not on the same page as Vogel when the former Lakers coach benched him down the stretch of a loss to the Pacers in January.

“I was disappointed I didn’t go back in, but I’m more disappointed that we lost the damn game,” Westbrook told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski at the time. “I want to be able to be on the floor to help my teammates and be able to help our team win in games like that — but that was a decision that was made.”

Westbrook clearly doesn’t like the idea of being a spectator for close contests, but he may not have a voice in the matter. Ham will have “more power to bench Westbrook down the stretch of games,” according to The Athletic’s Jovan Buha. If that truly is the case, Westbrook won’t be able to commit bizarre turnovers or shoot ill-advised jumpers early in the shot clock and stay on the floor.

If Ham wants to put shooting, playmaking and defense on the floor at the same time, his best closing lineup could be Beverley, Reaves, James, Davis and Bryant. Perhaps Nunn or Schroder could rotate into one of the guard slots depending on the strength of their performances in a given game.

Yes, that could mean Ham will have to deal with an unhappy Westbrook, but Los Angeles can’t afford to placate Westbrook if he is no longer an impactful player.