3 HRS AGO - Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images We’re three games into the season, and the issues surrounding the starting lineup and Anthony Davis’ time at center are more visible than ever. Would Frank Vogel make a change Tuesday against the Spurs? The Lakers got the monkey off their back on Sunday night, beating the Grizzlies 121-118 for the team’s first win of the season. They’ll now enter a stretch of games against some of the worst teams in the league, starting with a matchup against the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night. The game will be on the road, as part of a quick back-to-back road trip with the Lakers visiting the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday. But the next six games as a whole will feature the Spurs, Thunder (x2), Cavaliers, and Rockets (x2), presenting an opportunity for the team to get over .500, with room to do even more than that. Let’s take a look at some of things to watch out for in this one. Starting lineup solutions Frank Vogel has definitely Collapse

10 HRS AGO - Photo by Harry How/Getty Images Dwight Howard is pretty easily a top-75 player in NBA history. It’s a shame the league’s voting panel didn’t recognize that. The Los Angeles Lakers had four current players on their roster named to the NBA’s list of the top 75 players in its 75 year history, but there is a pretty good argument to be made that they should have had five, with Dwight Howard joining LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Russell Westbrook and Anthony Davis among those recognized by the league last week. Howard certainly thinks so, weighing in with a simple, one-word response to the snub on Instagram: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bleacher Report (@bleacherreport) Howard has a point. His resume is almost indisputably that of a top-50 player, much less top 75. He ranks eighth all-time in field-goal percentage, 11th in rebounds, 13th in blocks, and did it all despite being “just” 44th all-time in minutes played. Howard Collapse

20 HRS AGO - Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images The Lakers needed every bit of vintage Carmelo Anthony on Sunday as he turned back the clocks to lead the hosts to their first win. Entering the night 14 points behind Moses Malone for ninth all-time in scoring, it wasn’t unreasonable to think Carmelo Anthony might need multiple games to further bolster his resume and move one spot higher on the career points list. Anthony, though, had no interest in meekly inching past Malone on Sunday. The 37-year-old turned back the clock in front of the rowdy Staples Center faithful and the hosts needed every bit of his vintage performance, edging out the Grizzlies 121-118 behind 28 points from Anthony. “Carmelo Anthony was awesome tonight,” head coach Frank Vogel said after the game. “He didn’t crawl up to that milestone. He blew the doors off of it. I’m super happy for him. He’s been a great culture fit for our group and, obviously, really playing at a high level on the floor. He’s got a lot Collapse

1 DAY AGO - Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images Below the stars, the Lakers have a bunch of players primed to break out. Which one’s jump this season will translate into the digital realm? Trailing only the Brooklyn Nets, virtually unmarred by Kyrie Irving’s indefinite IRL absence, the Lakers’ 83 overall team rating is the second-best in this year’s edition of NBA 2K. After their two top-11 players, LeBron James (96 Overall) and Anthony Davis (93 Overall), and the 31st-ranked player, Russell Westbrook (86 Overall), the team’s roster levels off in the mid-70s. No rotation player outside of the team’s Big Three has a rating higher than 78, or lower than 74. Of those tightly grouped 10, a few stand out as having a particularly good chance of boosting their in-game rating by a bundle of points before the season’s end. Let’s go through who could earn the biggest reputation boost. Honorable Mentions With their best years behind them, Dwight Howard (78 overall) and Carmelo Anthony (78 Collapse

2 DAYS AGO - Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports After Avery Bradley’s surprise appearance in the later parts of the Lakers’ opening night loss against the Warriors, Anthony Davis talked about how the team actually wanted to sign him during the summer. There haven’t been many bright spots in the Lakers’ 0-2 start to the season. The opening loss against the Warriors ended close at 121-114, but this was a game where the Lakers led for most of the time only to let the Warriors quickly swing the lead in their favor in the early part of the fourth quarter. And as for last night’s 115-105 loss against the Suns, I don’t think you could find a final result less telling of how it went for a team than summing everything up as a mere “10-point loss for the Lakers.” However, one breath of fresh air has come in the form of a familiar face, as it seems that Avery Bradley will be a substantial player in Frank Vogel’s rotation moving forward. It was said before the 2021 offseason started (with similar ideas Collapse

3 DAYS AGO - Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images Sure, the Lakers can technically learn from their mistakes Friday night, but will they? With the first week of the NBA season just about in the books, and the NBA’s stupid top 75 list finally behind us, Aaron Larsuel and I finally get to focus on (mostly) basketball! In fact, we actually had this exchange in slack to celebrate a subject we didn’t have to touch on for the first time in the (brief) history of our podcast. We started, however, with the latest on Ben Simmons, and try to figure out just how ridiculous this might get. We also discussed how the Sixers (or any other team, for that matter) might avoid this kind of situation ever again. I also gave my thoughts on what might actually force Daryl Morey’s hand in finally ending this nonsense. From there, we got to focus on the basketball that was actually played and the real fans who got to enjoy those games, and what we’ve missed about the sport, Collapse

3 DAYS AGO - Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images Frank Vogel is going to have to step out of his comfort zone given the flawed roster he’s been tasked with managing. The good news for the Los Angeles Lakers heading into their game two matchup with the Phoenix Suns is that in some aspects, it can’t possibly get any worse. The focus after Opening Night was on Russell Westbrook — and rightfully so — but Frank Vogel seriously struggled to put players in positions to succeed. That’s going to have to change, and so this week on “I Love Basketball,” Sabreena Merchant and I tried to figure out what it might look like. It should also be pointed out before we get to where Vogel fell short that this roster is pretty flawed. Just my opinion here, but the least important player archetype in the NBA right now is the combo guard. They tend not to be switchable defensively and, more often than not, if they aren’t scoring, don’t offer much else. The Lakers have three such players. Again, just my Collapse

4 DAYS AGO - Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images A quartet of current Lakers in LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Carmelo Anthony and Russell Westbrook were revealed on Thursday as members of the NBA’s 75 greatest players of all-time. The NBA announced the final 25 players on its list of the 75 greatest players of all time on Thursday with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Carmelo Anthony and Russell Westbrook among those included. The list was revealed across the opening three days of the season in celebration of the 75th season of the NBA. Beginning on Tuesday, the league released 25 players per day prior to their showcase games on both TNT and ESPN. On Thursday, the final 25 players were announced with four current Lakers among those named. On Monday, James spoke about his potential inclusion on the list and, though he said it wasn’t something he was specifically excited about nor the team had discussed, he did speak on what it meant to have simply made it to the NBA. “It’s very Collapse

4 DAYS AGO - The Lakers did well to build out a roster this talented with mostly minimum contracts. That said, after just one regular season game, we’re already seeing the limitations of not having enough size on the wing, particularly defensively. When the Lakers decided to acquire a third star and the mega-salary that comes with that class of player, they functionally limited the ways they could fill out their roster by greatly restricting their flexibility. Maneuvers that put them in a position to be hard capped (like using the full mid-level exception or acquiring a player via sign-and-trade) were out the window. They’d have the taxpayer mid-level at their disposal, but that’s only one salary slot, and only goes up to $5.9 million (ultimately used on Kendrick Nunn). After that, the rest of the team would be filled out with minimum-salaried players or holdovers from last year’s team. (Sidebar: Don’t get me started on letting Alex Caruso walk for nothing or not prioritizing simply keeping him Collapse