Projected Lakers depth chart after signing LeBron James leaves a lot to be desired
By Ian Levy
The Lakers have officially escaped the worst-case scenario of the offseason, retaining LeBron James on a two-year, $104 million contract that includes a no-trade clause and a player option for the final season. However, they'll be staring out the same scenario next offseason when he could conceivably opt-out and re-enter free agency. They've also given up any leverage for a possible trade, as unlikely as it would have been, if things go south this year.
But keeping LeBron for another year is still a big win anyway you slice it. The problem is that's really the only win over the Lakers' offseason so far. The draft is behind us, we're two days into free agency, and so far the only changes to the depth chart are the additions of rookies Dalton Knecht and Bronny James.
Los Angeles Lakers 2024-25 depth chart
POSITION | PLAYER |
|---|---|
Point guard | D'Angelo Russell |
Shooting guard | Austin Reaves |
Small forward | LeBron James |
Power forward | Rui Hachimura |
Center | Anthony Davis |
Reserve | Jarred Vanderbilt |
Reserve | Gabe Vincent |
Reserve | Dalton Knecht |
Reserve | Jaxson Hayes |
Reserve | Christian Wood |
Reserve | Cam Reddish |
Reserve | Maxwell Lewis |
Reserve | Jalen Hood-Schifino |
Reserve | Max Christie |
Reserve | Bronny James |
Bronny is unlikely to play this year and while Knecht was a great value at No. 17 and has some skills. that were lacking on this roster last year — shooting and secondary creation — it's not clear he's ready to be play 20-25 minutes per game for a contender. Remember, this is essentially the same roster that needed to survive the Play-In Tournament just to grab the No. 8 seed last season, and only barely avoided a first-round sweep at the hands of the Nuggets.
You can argue that Knecht makes them better, as does a healthy Jarred Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent. But those are still pretty small upgrades, especially when teams that finished ahead of them in the standings last year have already made much bigger moves — the Mavs grabbing Klay Thompson, the Timberwolves landing Rob Dillingham, the Thunder getting Isaiah Hartenstein, the Suns signing Monte Morris, the Pelicans trading for Dejounte Murray, etc.
The Lakers took care of their No 1 priority of the summer, scoring Aerosmith tickets. Whoops, I mean re-signing LeBron. But they still have a lot of work to left to do with many of the biggest offseason pieces already off the board.
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