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This season, the NBA will have two duos that were ranked in the top-10 in points per game last season: Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, and LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
While George, Leonard and LA Clippers are widely considered the favorites to come out of the Western Conference going into the regular season, Lakers head coach Frank Vogel said he believes his roster has the most dominant and versatile duo in the NBA after the team’s first day of training camp on Friday.
“I think we got the best of ‘em. Of all the duos, we’ve two top-five players, two guys that really just do it all,” Vogel said. “And I’d put those two guys against anybody in the league.”
The Lakers might not have the depth other Western Conference contenders like the Clippers, Denver Nuggets or Utah Jazz have, but they’re going to have two of the best three players on the floor to start and close games on most nights if James and Davis are both healthy. If Vogel can master the art of staggering his lineups — something Luke Walton couldn’t do in his three seasons in Los Angeles — one of James and Davis will be on the floor for all 48 minutes in each game, which is a good start for any lineup Vogel puts on the court.
There’s no question that Vogel will have some bad nights with the first time he’s coached in over a year, but he should have fewer bad nights with the talents of James and Davis on his roster. Hopefully everyone else does their job to make life easier on Vogel in his first season in Los Angeles.
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