Lakers Roster 2019: 5 Most Important Players For Los Angeles After Anthony Davis Trade, Free Agency

All eyes will be on the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2019-2020 season. During a year in which so many teams are considered legitimate contenders to reach the NBA Finals, L.A. is the betting favorite to win next season’s championship.

The Lakers overhauled their roster this offseason, making one of the biggest trades in recent memory and using their max salary slot to sign several free agents. Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart were sent to the New Orleans Pelicans for Anthony Davis after making 119 combined starts for Los Angeles in 2018-2019.

LeBron James and Kyle Kuzma are back. The same goes for Rajon Rondo, JaVale McGee and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. The Lakers acquire five new players that will be making fewer than $5 million, but a few of them will end up ranking among the team’s top contributors.

Here are the five most important players for the Lakers next season:

1) LeBron James

For the first time in nearly a decade, James isn’t the consensus No.1 player in the NBA. What will he be in his 17th season after coming off the first major injury of his career? If James looks anything like the player that finished second in the 2018 MVP voting and carried the Cleveland Cavaliers to the NBA Finals, the Lakers might be the best team in the West. There’s also a chance that age will finally take its toll on James and force Los Angeles’ second-most important player to carry a bigger load than any of James’ past teammates.

2) Anthony Davis

It’s time for Davis to prove that he’s as good as everyone believes him to be. For all of his talent, Davis only won a single playoff series in his seven seasons with the Pelicans. The big man looked like he might be on his way to becoming the NBA’s top player in 2018 when he finished third in both MVP and Defensive Player of the Year voting. With James likely to play plenty of point guard and rest more than any other season in his career, the Lakers might need Davis to become their No.1 scorer and most impactful regular-season player.

3) Kyle Kuzma

Ever since James formed his first “Big 3” with the Miami Heat in 2010, a lot of attention has been paid to his team’s third-best player. Chris Bosh and Kevin Love received a ton of scrutiny as James’ teammate, and Kuzma will step into that role next season. The problem is Kuzma isn’t nearly as good as those players, entering his third year and having never made an All-Star team. Kuzma shot 36.6 percent from three-point range as a rookie and 30.3 percent from distance last year. Whether Kuzma’s season is a success or a failure will largely be determined by where that percentage falls in 2019-2020.

4) Danny Green

The Lakers made Green their third-highest paid player by a wide margin when they signed him to a two-year, $30 million contract this summer. After being a key role player on title-winning teams with the San Antonio Spurs and Toronto Raptors, Green might have more responsibility than ever in his first season with L.A. Los Angeles’ problems last season stemmed from their inability to shoot threes and defend, and that’s exactly why the Lakers overpaid Green. The Lakers are banking on him to be an elite wing defender and three-point shooter, in addition to adding some much-needed championship experience.

5) Avery Bradley

Bradley is the Lakers’ biggest wild card. He’s only 28 years old and two years removed from being a reliable defender and three-point shooter for a team that reached the Eastern Conference Finals. In the last two seasons, Bradley’s been an average three-point shooter while measuring extremely poorly on the defensive end. Bradley has a high ceiling as well as a low floor, with the potential to either be one of the best guards on a team that’s loaded in the frontcourt or a bench player that won’t receive many important minutes.