Podcast: How to build a better Lakers rotation

Due to the holiday this week, the schedule for Locked on Lakers is slightly different. Usually, I’d be talking to Pete about whatever, but as it feels like forever since we last spoke after a game and because of the weird work week, we figured we’d change things up a bit.

So, for today’s episode, we start by talking about the fiasco that is the current Washington Wizards. They’ve immensely underperformed and everyone is reportedly available in a trade that might help lighten the financial burden they have over the extents of John Wall, Otto Porter and Bradley Beal’s contracts.

As I wrote earlier this week, the Lakers should stay far as far as humanly possible away from Wall and, while Porter and Beal are good players who would help, the opportunity cost of trading for them is too high given what the Lakers seem to think they are capable of in free agency over the next couple summers.

From there, I turn my attention to a bunch of data I was looking at instead of doing my job here at Silver Screen & Roll yesterday afternoon to see if the foundation of a sensible Lakers rotation can be dug out from the mass of data that’s been accrued to this point of the still young NBA season.

Turns out, yes, you kind of can.

I started by figuring out who seems to be having the most consistently positive impact whenever they have been on the court. LeBron James is the obvious one, and then Tyson Chandler and Josh Hart were the other two. From there, it was a matter of how they’ve either looked together, or with others, and you can build from the inside out after that.

It’s a lot more complicated than that as you figure out workloads and political climate in the locker room, but it’s a fun exercise nonetheless. Shouts to NBA.com/stats for some borderline-addictive information.

As always, this is just a tidbit of the full context given in the shows. Listen to the full discussions below and please check out old episodes, or guarantee you won’t miss any ever again by subscribing to either “The Silver Screen and Roll Podcast” or “Locked on Lakers” on iTunes.