UPDATE on the Lakers’ Frontcourt Rotation for Game 1.
Darvin Ham said that the Los Angeles Lakers have a couple of guys on their roster who can play a White Howard type role in the Lakers Nuggets series and bring physicality against Nikola Jokic, and unfortunately, Darvin Ham did not name specifically who those guys are, but of course you have to look at guys like Mo Bamba. Tristan Thompson and Rui Hachimura I feel like those are the three guys who could bring some physicality and size to the table against a guy like Nikola jokic in a Dwight Howard type of role and when you look at the size Mo Bamba’s really the only guy who’s gonna bring that size and unfortunately he’s gonna be out for game one but it seems like he could be available later on in the series.
So maybe we could see some Obama minutes but Tristan Thompson is a good Defender who brings some physicality so maybe we’ll actually see some Tristan Thompson minutes in game one of this Lakers Nuggets series it’d be interesting to see how that works out considering that he really hasn’t played much for the Los Angeles Lakers and when he’s got in games have already been decided so throwing him into the fire in the Western Conference Finals may not exactly be the best idea but if you need him out there just to play some defence on jokic grab some rebounds and score some layups in the paint here or there.
I think that he could at least fill that role for you and if you just need that size you don’t really have anybody else to go to with Mo Bamba out as a secondary defensive option outside of Anthony Davis really Tristan Thompson might be one of your better options rui hachimura does bring good size to the tables so maybe the Lakers look at him as an option and I like his game a tonne offensively hopefully he’s been great as a floor spacer in the playoffs has a great mid-range game could score in the pain can bully guys down low he’s definitely a guy who’s going to bring a lot more offensively and I think with his size we should see more of them in this series than we did against Golden State but having a guy like Dwight Howard was huge for the Lakers in 2020 so hopefully they can find a guy to play that type of role in this series whether it’s Tristan Thompson rui hachimura or Mo Bamba once he comes back.
I think that having somebody to do that defensively could be really valuable a guy who could bring physicality against jokic I mean playing that role could be super valuable for this team because a lot of the Nuggets to offence runs through Nikola jokic with his play making and scoring capabilities he is a huge thread for the Los Angeles Lakers, so they definitely have their hands in this series with Nikola jokic and other scoring threats like Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr.