Even though those who track such things would never categorize him as such, LeBron James as his team’s point guard is a rather common practice for his teams. As recently as two seasons ago, injuries and the trade of Kyrie Irving forced him to run the show for extended periods for the Cleveland Cavaliers, but he was never technically listed as the point guard.
So this gets to a general point about LeBron is that even if he is the point guard, technicalities suggest that he’s not. But all of that is just semantics and LeBron got an extended look as the team’s primary ball-handler at Thursday’s practice, according to multiple reports.
Via ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, LeBron was flanked by wings and Anthony Davis.
Besides using James at the 1 and Davis at the 5, Vogel used a closing lineup of Alex Caruso, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Avery Bradley with the first unit.
Head coach Frank Vogel also told reporters that staggering LeBron and Rajon Rondo is something he plans to do, letting each guy have their hand at controlling the action. The Lakers do have considerably more options when it comes to wings to put around LeBron this season, because most of them are capable outside shooters. That will put more onus on LeBron to create, but considering that’s what he’s legendary at, it’s a pretty sound strategy.
