LAKERS IDEAL ROTATION MINUS MARK WILLIAMS

WRITTEN + EDITED BY JORDYN BONTRAGER

Roughly 24 hours ago, the Lakers were riding a mountainous wave of momentum into the post-deadline portion of the schedule. That wave came crashing back down to Earth a bit when word broke yesterday evening regarding the revocation of Dalton Knecht + Cam Reddish and Mark Williams’ impending relocations.

In the blink of an eye, the Lakers’ went from housing their undisputed starting center of the future to holstering a dugout of decent big men with (all due respect) none being established as a starting level NBA player up to this point in their respective careers. To add insult to injury, the pair of previously noted young wings whom they just betrayed are being forced to return to the roots that sent them packing.

Yikes.

On the bright side, this remains a depth chart brimming with brilliance. Losing out on Williams certainly stings, but retaining Knecht could be a blessing in disguise down the road. Plus, there is an assortment of noteworthy veteran bigs for the team to target on the open market (examples: Mo Bamba, JaVale McGee, Daniel Theis, etc). With those things in mind, here is what JJ Redick’s updated rotation could/should look like now that the dust has officially settled (for the time being).

STARTERS

PG = Luka Doncic | 6’7” | 230 LBS | AGE: 25

• MPG = 36

SG = Austin Reaves | 6’5” | 197 LBS | AGE: 26

• MPG = 35

SF = Dorian Finney-Smith | 6’7” | 220 LBS | AGE: 31

• MPG = 26

PF = LeBron James | 6’9” | 250 LBS | AGE: 40

• MPG = 32

C = Jaxson Hayes | 7’0” | 220 LBS | AGE: 24

• MPG = 19

BENCH

PG = Gabe Vincent | 6’2” | 200 LBS | AGE: 28

• MPG = 21

SG = Dalton Knecht | 6’6” | 215 LBS | AGE: 23

• MPG = 20

SF = Rui Hachimura | 6’8” | 230 LBS | AGE: 26

• MPG = 32

PF = Jarred Vanderbilt | 6’8” | 214 LBS | AGE: 25

• MPG = 26

C = Christian Wood | 6’9” | 214 LBS | AGE: 28

• MPG = 14

RESERVES

PG = Bronny James | 6’2” | 220 LBS | AGE: 20

• MPG = Garbage Duty

SG = Shake Milton | 6’5” | 205 LBS | AGE: 28

• MPG = Garbage Duty

SF = Cam Reddish | 6’7” | 217 LBS | AGE: 25

• MPG = 5

PF = Markieff Morris | 6’9” | 233 LBS | AGE: 35

• MPG = Garbage Duty

C = Max Kleber | 6’10” | 240 LBS | AGE: 33

• MPG = 9

LeBron James is the greatest basketball player of our generation. Luke Doncic has been an All-NBA level hooper since the moment he stepped foot on the NBA hardwood for the first time back in 2018. Austin Reaves has rapidly reached borderline All-Star status since he began sporting extra head and limb accessories. Sprinkle in the ancillary firepower of Rui Hachimura (whose full-time shift swap with DFS makes too much sense not to transpire very soon) and Dalton Knecht off the pine, and you are looking at 5x fellas fully capable of exploding on any given night. That type of weaponry could feasibly yield one of the most unstoppable offenses in league history, and we have already seen Luka pilot the NBA’s all-time most efficient attack back in 2020 (record has since been surpassed).

Say the front office snags former Laker 7-footer Mo Bamba off of the free agent market, the 26-year-old would battle with Jaxson Hayes, Christian Wood, Maxi Kleber, and Markieff Morris (along with 2-way guys Christian Koloko and Trey Jemison) for a majority of the team’s Center minutes. Honestly, that frontcourt mix would be far from incompetent. They (along with some help from guys like Doncic, James and Hachimura) should be able to collectively hold their own on the boards by committee. They also have enough big bodies to constantly have fresh frontcourt legs setting screens, intimidating opposing paint dwellers defensively and crashing the glass offensively. We know that each of Bamba + Wood + Kleber + Morris have each proven a respectable level of precision from distance, and having multiple big bodies who can help stretch the floor serves as a bit of a cherry on top.

With all due respect to the guys noted above, there are a trio of other support pieces whom stand out as the most critical components to this club’s championship quest looking ahead: Dorian Finney-Smith + Jarred Vanderbilt + Gabe Vincent.

In the case of DFS, it all comes down to three very simple characters: 3&D. Per usual, Doe-Doe has been a defensive demon since joining the team (duh). If he can keep hitting shots at an efficient manner (39.3% from deep on 3.8 attempts/game), he will undoubtedly be in store for roughly 25-30 minutes a night. With 16x games suiting up next to Bron + Reaves now under his belt AND 5.5x seasons played alongside Doncic back in Dallas, something tells us that his levels of comfort and confidence are only going up from here.

Vando picked his irritating fashion of energy back up right from the moment he returned from the lingering knee ailment which kept the menace sidelined until January 25th. With the aforementioned quintet of killers putting a majority of the scoring tallies on the scoreboard, Vanderbilt will have the ability to exert 99% of his on-court energy on the end of the floor which wins championships (with the other 1% being allocated towards crashing the offensive boards). Chances are we will see a minor/moderate dosage of Vando minutes at the 5 spot as JJ Redick experiments with establishing the most effective rotational patterns for the upcoming postseason run. Thankfully he is no stranger to absorbing spot Center minutes nor is he afraid to get physical in the trenches if/when required.

Gabe Vincent has arguably been the most hated man in the entire city of Los Angeles across the past 1.5x years, but the combo guard is starting to turn a legitimate corner. After dealing with some prolonged injury issues of his own, Vincent has suited up in 43/50 games thus far in 2024-2025. Finney-Smith and Vanderbilt will claim most of the minutes defending the opposition’s top perimeter scorers each night, but it must also be comforting for this coaching staff to have such a battle-tested point of attack parasite at their disposal additionally. He is a little on the shorter side of the spectrum, but his competitive nature and overall IQ compensate for any height mismatches he may encounter. Plus, he has bounced back from a tough outside shooting month in January (29.4% from 3 on 4.3 attempts/game) via a scalding opening shooting stretch so far in February (46.7% from 3 on 7.5 attempts/game). After recovering from an absymal October/November in the form of a 44.4% connection rate from distance in December on 3.8 attempts/game, the key is now for him to simply level off and establish a sense of consistency throughout the remainder of the regular season.

Losing Mark Williams was no doubt a difficult pill to digest, but this team still has enough to make things happen when it matter most. Now it is on them to come together, buy in, and stack W’s.

¡LAKESHOW!