Lakers News: Beat Reporter Believes New LA Addition Could Break Into Starting Five

Throughout his tenure with the Lakers, star Anthony Davis has talked many times about his dislike for playing the center position. He prefers to play the four spot and have a big name next to him. But the Lakers have found that having Davis at the five, gives them an advantage in games, so they normally use it in closing times of the games.

We saw in 2020 that when the Lakers put a big man around Davis, the team was also productive because opponents couldn’t just force him to stay on the perimeter as they had to watch out for the inside threats.

The team wants to go back to their 2020 model of winning this coming year, which is a big reason why they signed former New Orleans Pelicans center Jaxson Hayes.

They envision Hayes to play a similar role to what Dwight Howard did years ago. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that LA could go with a starting five that includes a center next to Davis. And according to one team insider, that could be a possibility to open the year.

ESPN insider Dave McMenamin recently joined The Lowe Post podcast and said that he could see Hayes starting the season at center alongside Davis.

“It would not shock me if we saw Jaxson Hayes as a starting center to open up the season to see how that looks. But that doesn’t mean that you’re not going to see Anthony Davis playing center in the fourth quarter. That’s winning time.”

Per The Lowe Post

This seems all speculation at this point, but is interesting, to say the least. Maybe LA seems value putting an athletic center like Hayes around Davis to try and maximize their offense. Hayes could control the paint, while Davis can help run the offense from the top of the key.

The Lakers like to use all sorts of pick-and-roll schemes with Davis, so this could be another way to do that. Head Coach Darvin Ham is looking to improve the offense this year, so I'm sure he wants to test different things out at the start of the year.

Either way, this is fun to think about, and it won't be long now until we see what happens. Davis will still be the center when the games get tight in the fourth quarter, but Hayes could have an increased role to start the year out.

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