The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the most successful franchises in NBA history. Who is their most productive lineup of all-time greats?
The Lakers may have the second or best all-time lineup of all time according to most NBA fans. They are tied for the most titles in the history of the NBA and have more than their share of Hall-of-Famers and NBA legends.
Creating an all-time starting lineup for the Lakers is no easy task but using Win Shares, an all-in-one measure of career production for Basketball-Reference, helps separate elite from the very best.
Lakers all-time starting lineup: Point guard, Magic Johnson, 155.8 Win Shares
Magic Johnson is the starting point guard for this team. Johnson has the 23rd-most Win Shares of all time. Johnson will be controlling the ball on the offensive end but he will end up guarding fours on other teams due to the lack of size on this roster.
The Lakers have a lot of guards who could have been at the top of their list. But we need a big guard on the other 4s playing against this team. This allows us to avoid putting George Mikan on the roster and create better spacing on this lineup.
Magic Johnson helped turn around the league with his rivalry against Larry Bird. The Lakers were able to win multiple titles with Magic Johnson as their second or best player on the roster during this era. His Win-Share score shows that.
Lakers all-time starting lineup: Shooting guard, Jerry West, 162.8 Win Shares
Jerry West will be our shooting guard due to the fact that he has such a high Win Share total. This will help the team as we added a second all-time playmaker who can score on his own. He averaged 27 points per game during his career. West was the Lakers' centerpiece during the 60s.
The Lakers were always losing to the Celtics in the NBA finals during that era. West ended up winning one title and being a part of one of the best teams in the history of the league — the 1972 Lakers had one of the longest winning streaks in the history of the NBA.
This was the one year where the West would win a championship. Despite him only being able to win one ring, he was a consistent face of the league during this time. He ended up being the logo for the NBA.
Lakers all-time starting lineup: Small Forward, Kobe Bryant, 172.7 Win Shares
Kobe Bryant has the best win shares in the history of the Lakers. Overall, he is at 16th all-time when it comes to win-shares all time.
Kobe was one of the best NBA players for 18 seasons. Still, three of those seasons were the dog days of his career. That is 16 percent of his career. Additionally, it is not like he was terribly efficient during the years between the Shaq era and the Gasol era. However, he put up enormous numbers for nearly two decades and all that scoring adds up over time.
At the end of the day, Kobe Bryant was the best player on at least three title teams. On his other two other title teams, he was the second- or best player on the team. You just can't leave him off this roster, even if West gets the starting shooting guard spot.
Lakers all-time starting lineup: Power Forward, Elgin Baylor, 104.2 Win Shares
When it came to finding a power forward for this team, it was hard to find one that worked with this team and had a high Win Share total. Elgin Baylor was technically a small forward but in today's NBA he could be considered a small-ball power forward. This would help the team with spacing and allow them to have another offensive weapon.
Baylor is an all-time Laker great who played for the team in the 60s and was a great shooter. As mentioned in the Magic Johnson piece, Johnson will be guarding the power forwards on this team. West will slide on to the less offensively talented guard, and Bryant will guard the more talented offensive guard. Baylor will slide over to the small forward spot on the defensive end.
Baylor is often considered one of the most underrated players in the history of the NBA. Additionally, he is considered one of the best players to never win a ring. In terms of Win Shares, Baylor has one of the highest totals in the history of the Lakers. He is currently sixth on the all-time Win Share list.
Lakers all-time starting lineup: Center, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, 158.7 Win Shares
Kareem Abdul Jabbar is quite possibly the best player in the history of the NBA. That might be a controversial statement to make but it holds up. Abdul Jabbar won a title with the Bucks before requesting a trade to the Lakers. After the Lakers drafted Magic, they were able to compete for the best team of the decade and win multiple titles.
Abdul Jabbar ended his Lakers score with a very high Win Share total. This is impressive considering the fact that he wasn't amazing in the last couple of years in the league but he was still able to shine in some moments.
He ended up averaging 22 points, 9 rebounds and 3.3 assists for his entire Lakers career. Considering the later part of his career where the Lakers' offense was too fast for the aging star, this is quite impressive. For this team, he will provide rebounding and presence down-low that will allow this team to control the boards. This team will be facing all-time rebounders, therefore we will need our own all-time big man to have any chance of doing well.
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