With the 2023-2024 NBA season only a few weeks from officially starting, NBA fans must certainly want to know what the Los Angeles Lakers’ starting 5 could look like. As many fans might remember, LeBron James and the Lakers finished last season as the 7th seed and had to participate in the play-in tournament to secure a spot in the playoffs.
They had a remarkable comeback during their final stretch of games and managed to make it all the way to the Western Conference Finals. However, they ended up losing to Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. Denver swept them in 4 games and went on to the NBA Finals where they won a coveted championship.
Since the Lakers want to make the best of their limited time with LeBron James, they made quite a few additions to their roster in order to stay in contention this season. A notable member of the basketball community opined that Taurean Prince might just be given a spot in the starting 5. That said, let us take a closer look at what was said and the current situation.
Will Taurean Prince start alongside LeBron James for the Los Angeles Lakers?
Although the Lakers were unable to bring on superstars to their roster this offseason, they still made quite a few solid moves in order to have a more talented and deep roster. One of those moves was acquiring Taurean Prince from the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Jovan Buha is an NBA reporter and a fairly influential member of the media. He managed to gain the attention of Los Angeles Lakers fans by claiming that Prince is a serious candidate to secure a starting position on the roster and play alongside D’Angelo Russell, LeBron James, and Anthony Davis.
Taurean Prince is a serious candidate to start next to D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, LeBron James and Anthony Davis, per @jovanbuha
“The Lakers have been mixing up their lineups in scrimmages, experimenting with different players at small forward. Vanderbilt was the primary… pic.twitter.com/gr9hq5oSON
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) October 5, 2023
Upon hearing this latest report, several members of the basketball community weren’t particularly convinced. Prince has averaged 10.4 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 1.7 assists throughout his 7-year career so far.
Since these numbers aren’t particularly impressive, many fans might be wondering if he deserves a starting spot on the roster over other players such as Rui Hachimura. After all, Rui has averaged 12.5 points, 5 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in his career.
At the moment we have no way of knowing with certainty which players will be made a part of the starting 5. One thing that Prince has going for him is his shooting efficiency. In his career, Taurean has averaged 42.1% from the field and 37.2% from the three-point line. Considering that LeBron and AD could use good three-point shooters around them, Prince might just get a starting spot on the roster if he maintains his impressive shooting.