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While the rest of the NBA was building their teams to go small, the Los Angeles Lakers doubled down on going big by trading for Anthony Davis and then signing JaVale McGee and DeMarcus Cousins in free agency during the summer of 2019. When it was revealed that Cousins suffered a torn ACL in his left knee before last season had even begun, the Lakers replaced him with Dwight Howard, another traditional center.
Davis, Howard and McGee all played a crucial role in the Lakers’ championship run, whether it was in the regular season, the playoffs or both. However, with the exception of Davis — who’s expected to re-sign with the Lakers whenever NBA free agency begins — it’s hard to predict what Frank Vogel’s big man rotation will look next season because Howard is set to his unrestricted free agency and McGee has a $4.2 million player option in his contract that he can decline. He probably won’t, but he can.
On this week’s episode of “The 30,” part of the Silver Screen and Roll podcast network, our hosts Jas Kang and Christian Rivas talked about how productive McGee and Howard were as a tandem for the Lakers, whether just one (or both) of them will be back next season, and where Cousins might fit into the team’s plans moving forward. They also discussed how the new league calendar could discourage the Lakers from making trades on or before draft night, including a theoretical deal for Chris Paul.
You can listen to the entire episode in the player embedded below, and to make sure you never miss a single one moving forward, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts.
You can follow Jas on Twitter at @jaskang21, and Christian at @RadRivas.