Following a tumultuous season for the Los Angeles Lakers that cost LeBron James a full season in the twilight of his prime, LA has seemingly gotten themselves back on track, battling through adversity earlier in the year to grab themselves a guaranteed playoff spot as the seventh seed for the 2022-2023 NBA season.

Of course, the weak start they got themselves off to required that they narrowly edge out a Minnesota Timberwolves team missing their former Defensive Player of the Year in Rudy Gobert in the 7th and 8th seed Play-In matchup.

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A big part of their turnaround this season has to be credited to General Manager Rob Pelinka and the moves he made before the 2023 trade deadline, turning Kendrick Nunn, Russell Westbrook, Damian Jones, Juan Toscano-Anderson, and a handful of picks into Rui Hachimura, Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Mohamed Bamba, and D’Angelo Russell.

These players have undoubtedly been a better fit alongside LeBron and Anthony Davis than Russ and crew. For example, DLo has managed to maintain his 17-point scoring average and six assists per game while cutting down on his turnovers and increasing his efficiency, from 46.5 percent shooting from the floor and 39 percent from deep with the T-Wolves to 48.4 and 41 percent with the Lakers respectively.

While the record is indicative of their better fit than the Lakers role players they opened the season with, the question remains: Will the new supporting cast be enough for LA to compete for a title?

Since bringing in their new arrivals, the Lakers have been able to reasonably compliment the games of LeBron and AD, with more shooting to space the floor, transition weapons for their stars to find on the breaks, and defensive versatility to cover the less glamorous end of the court.

1-1, series moves to Los Angeles pic.twitter.com/daDaPuqJyl

— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) April 20, 2023

But these new role players have been inconsistent at best. In their Play-In game versus Minnesota, Russell, Vanderbilt, Beasley, and Hachimura combined for just 19 points on six made field goals on 22 attempts from the floor. DLo and Vanderbilt, the two starters, particularly struggled, with Russell tallying just two points on 1-9 shooting and Vanderbilt putting up an egg on just two attempts.

With the stakes raised, teams have already began completely ignoring Vanderbilt on the offensive side of the court, using his primary defender as a roamer to help on LeBron’s drives and Davis’s post-ups. If their new supporting cast can’t raise their games to fit the occasion, how far can the Lakers really go as a unit?

🏀 FINAL SCORE THREAD 🏀

Xavier Tillman's Playoff career highs in points and rebounds led the @memgrizz to the Game 2 win!

LeBron James: 28 PTS, 12 REB, 3 AST
Jaren Jackson Jr: 18 PTS, 9 REB, 3 AST, 3 BLK#NBAPlayoffs presented by Google Pixel pic.twitter.com/7kUnm2Ib4s

— NBA (@NBA) April 20, 2023

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| Title: Can the Los Angeles Lakers role players step it up and turn LA into a real contender?
| Author: Andy Quach
| Date: Apr 11, 2022