Lakers’ rotation, first impressions of newcomers and other observations

The Lakers' regular rotation could be fairly close to what we saw Tuesday night.@jovanbuha breaks that down, and also goes to Tuesday's film to analyze the Lakers' clunky defense and the debuts of Marc Gasol, Montrezl Harrell and Dennis Schröder. ⤵️https://t.co/P3CSCtMIdt

— The Athletic L.A. (@TheAthleticLA) December 23, 2020

Here are five observations from the Lakers’ 116-109 opening-night loss to the Clippers at Staples Center on Tuesday.

An early look at the rotation

Following an emotional ring ceremony, we saw the first glimpse of the Lakers’ rotation in a game that actually mattered. The starters, as expected, were Marc Gasol, Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Dennis Schröder. (The group was a minus-6 in nearly 12 minutes together.)

Here is a breakdown of the team’s minutes:

Lakers rotation

Montrezl Harrell 32
Anthony Davis 31
LeBron James 28
Dennis Schröder 28
Kyle Kuzma 27
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope 23
Markieff Morris 19
Alex Caruso 17
Marc Gasol 12
Wesley Matthews 11
Talen Horton-Tucker 11
Quinn Cook 1

The first takeaway is how conservative the Lakers were with Davis’ and James’ minutes. Head coach Frank Vogel repeatedly has said that he wants to monitor and manage his stars’ workload, particularly at the beginning of the season.

James didn’t crack the 30-minute mark because he tweaked his ankle in the fourth (more on his status below). On most nights, Davis and James should be in the 31-to-33-minute range, though foul trouble, health and context (back-to-backs, three games in five nights, etc.) also will factor in.

Similar to last season, the Lakers staggered James and Davis, keeping one star on the floor at all times. Davis played most of the first and third quarters, while James played roughly half of those quarters and started the second and fourth quarters with the bench unit.

The second takeaway is that this rotation appears to be about what we’d expect for each player.

The Harrell-Gasol split was so cavernous because Gasol picked up five fouls in 12 minutes. Under normal circumstances, that 32/12 split probably will be closer to 24/20 or 26/18 (in favor of Harrell).

Caruso’s playing time appeared a bit low considering how his energy and defense impacted the game in his stints. Kuzma, Caldwell-Pope and Morris will fluctuate depending on the opponent. Matthews vs. Horton-Tucker will be an interesting backend rotation battle, with the player who fits the team’s need on a given night likely getting the nod (Matthews for defense and Horton-Tucker for offense).

One lineup that stood out was Harrell, Morris, James, Kuzma and Caruso. That group was plus-6 in eight minutes together, translating to a plus-31.6 net rating.

The fivesome’s effort, energy, positional versatility and switchability made for exciting stretches of two-way basketball. That appears to be the group that’s going to start the second and fourth quarters, but as Vogel has said multiple times, he’s going to continue to tinker and experiment with lineup combinations, so that could change.