Sasha Vujacic officially signed his three year contract with the Lakers today. Currently, the Lakers have eleven players under contract and are expected to fill out the complete roster before the start of the season. However, the core of the team has now been established and any roster fillers acquired by training camp will likely see little to no time on the court. With this in mind, the Lakers depth chart with the eleven signed players for the 2008-09 campaign will most likely look like this:
PG - Derek Fisher, Jordan Farmar
SG - Kobe Bryant, Sasha Vujacic
SF - Lamar Odom, Trevor Ariza, Vladimir Radmanovic
PF - Pau Gasol, Luke Walton
C - Andrew Bynum, Chris Mihm
I assigned each player to their respective position based on where they have played historically and where I think they will play the bulk of their minutes next season. Based on this depth chart there are some glaring issues with depth in certain positions, particularly small forward and power forward. However, this is offset by the ability of some players to play multiple positions. For example, last year Coach Jackson typically played Odom at power forward while Gasol played center. Naturally, however, Odom is a small forward and Gasol plays power forward. With the addition of Andrew Bynum to the starting line up both players will most likely move down to their natural positions.
While this displacement of players was a foreseeable outcome of Bynum’s return, it has created a logjam at the small forward position where Odom, Radmanovic, Ariza, and Walton all naturally play. Last season all of these players with the exception of Ariza (who was injured a majority of the season) played out of position. In many instances, Walton and Radmanovic were forced to play minutes at power forward when the second team was inserted into the game or when Coach Jackson wanted a quicker unit on the floor. While Radmanovic languished in this position due to his lack of toughness, Walton flourished with his ability to take larger, slower defenders off the dribble and fight off opposing players from establishing post position. It will certainly be interesting to see how Jackson decides to play things.
If the Lakers continue to have troubles with defense and shooting, a mid-season trade will definitely be made with one or more of the forwards being dealt. Most likely Odom (who has the most trade value), with Radmanovic and Walton not far behind. Hopefully, this will not be the case as I like the current team as configured. But, what do you think? Do the Lakers have the needed depth and versatility they need? Are any of the small forwards consistent enough from the outside to pose a threat and space the floor for Gasol and Bynum to work? Do the Lakers need another natural power forward? With an injury prone front court are the Lakers taking a chance by relying on Mihm to play big backup minutes? Let me know your thoughts by posting them below.
Thanks for reading and Go Lakers!
