The Lakers Optimist

Lakers coach Byron Scott is getting close to penciling in his starting 5. He has hinted that Kobe and Nash would be starting backcourt, Boozer and Hill in the frontcourt and maybe Wesley Johnson at small forward.

Then we heard that Nash may not be starting. Then we heard, and this makes the most sense, that the starters would be confirmed after training camp.

Everybody expressed their discontent with Byron’s decision to choose veterans over youth to start games. They complain that players won’t be able to develop coming off the bench, namely Randle, Lin and Clarkson.

On a smaller level, we have the potential for a Spurs type of rotation, where the starters, namely the vets will be relied upon to start the game and to finish games and the bench will indeed receive the bulk of the minutes to keep Kobe, Nash and even Boozer fresh throughout the season. This is perhaps why they loaded up on power forwards, guards and point guards.

So it really doesn’t matter if the veterans start. Jeremy Lin and Julius Randle will get plenty of minutes to develop. More importantly, the Lakers bench will get the opportunity to become that benchmob that we saw last year before they were decimated with injuries.

I expect to see Nash play only 25 minutes maximum, giving Lin the bulk of minutes. Clarkson should be seen in spurts. An increase in Clarkson minutes should only come if he earns it, not because of last resort. Kobe will also see 30-35 minutes tops in favor of Nick Young taking the bulk of those minutes. Lastly, Randle will also be seeing valuable minutes backing up Boozer.

Lakers possess a young athletic group that will be called on to support the veterans throughout much of the season. Whether or not they can do it is going to be huge.

Do we have the talent to accomplish this? The jury is out on that. But I’m The Lakers Optimist so I expect greatness. Stay tuned. Pre-season begins October 6th against Denver Nuggets.

Let’s see who starts.

Tags: Byron Scott, Jeremy Lin, kobe bryant, lakers, Los Angeles Lakers, nba, San Antonio Spurs, Steve Nash, Swaggy P

This entry was posted on September 14, 2014 at 5:03 pm and is filed under lakers, nba, sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.