Lakers News: Wounded LA Starting A Rookie Against Nuggets Tonight
Both Noah Camras and I myself were way off in predicting the identity of the Lakers' fifth starter would be tonight against the Denver Nuggets, as it turns out.
Mike Trudell of Lakers.com reports that Los Angeles will elevate rookie shooting guard Max Christie, the 35th pick of the 2022 draft out of Michigan State, into the starting lineup.
This being Darvin Ham's Lakers, Christie will play up one position. 6'2" Dennis Schroder will start at the point, 6'1" Patrick Beverley will play shooting guard, 6'6" Christie will serve as the team's starting small forward, 6'6" forward Juan Toscano-Anderson will jump at the four spot, and Thomas Bryant, actually legitimate center size at 6'10", will be the team's starting center once again.
As Trudell notes, this fab five will be LA's 22nd different starting lineup of the 2022-23 NBA season.
Through 22 games with Los Angeles this season, the 19-year-old 3-and-D swingman is averaging just 3.0 points on .371/.421/.833 shooting splits and 2.1 boards in 13 minutes per contest.
A start today (and an incredibly thin perimeter lineup in general, with LeBron James, Lonnie Walker IV, Austin Reaves, Troy Brown Jr. all out) could give Christie the chance to finally score in double digits for the first time in his early NBA career (his current scoring peak at this level is eight points). Maybe he'll start adding to his career NBA dunk total, as well.
Christie has looked like a good find on both ends of the court in his limited minutes, and will now have an opportunity to really show what he can do in extended time.
