Say goodbye to Kobe Bryant and his 32.3% usage rate, and say hello to the new era of young Lakers, featuring players such as Russell, Clarkson, Ingram, Randle, Nance Jr., Zubac.. and Mozgov.

It’ll take a fair chunk of the year for the Lakers to adjust to playing without father Kobe, but once January comes these kids should have adjusted to the idea of receiving the ball back, after passing it off to a team-mate, and it’ll be fun to watch.

Player Movement

Notable Ins	Notable Outs
Brandon Ingram NBA Draft Ivica Zubac NBA Draft Jose Calderon New York Knicks Luol Deng Miami Heat Timofey Mozgov Cleveland Cavaliers Yi Jianlian Free Agent	Brandon Bass Los Angeles Clippers Roy Hibbert Charlotte Hornets

Los Angeles Lakers Depth Chart

Point Guard	Shooting Guard	Small Forward	Power Forward	Center
D'Angelo Russell Jose Calderon Marcelo Huertas	Jordan Clarkson Louis Williams	Luol Deng Brandon Ingram Anthony Brown Nick Young	Julius Randle Larry Nance Jr. Yi Jianlian	Timofey Mozgov Ivica Zubac Tarik Black

Rotation Player Projections

POS	PLAYER	USG	MPG	PTS	REB	AST	STL	BLK	3PM	FG%	FT%	TO
SG	Jordan Clarkson	27	32	18.1	4	2.9	1.1	0.1	1.6	43.3	80.4	2.1
PG	D'Angelo Russell	28	32	17.4	3.9	5.7	1.4	0.2	2.1	41.4	73.7	4.3
SF	Luol Deng	20	30	13.1	5.6	2	0.9	0.4	1.3	45.5	75.5	1.2
SF	Brandon Ingram	18	28	14	5.7	1.6	0.9	1	1.1	42	68	1.3
PF	Julius Randle	22	26	10.8	9.4	1.7	0.6	0.4	0.1	42.9	71.5	1.7
C	Timofey Mozgov	18	24	9.7	6.1	0.6	0.4	1.1	0	56.5	71.6	1.4
PF	Larry Nance Jr.	13	22	6.2	5.5	0.8	1	0.4	0	52.7	68.1	0.8
SG	Louis Williams	22.6	18	9.7	1.6	1.6	0.6	0.2	1	40.8	83	1
C	Ivica Zubac	14	18	8.1	4.5	0.2	0.4	1.3	0	48	63	0.7
PG	Jose Calderon	12.6	10	2.7	1.1	1.5	0.3	0	0.4	45.9	87.5	0.4

Position Battles

Starting Small Forward

Ingram comes into the season as a nineteen-year-old rookie and Deng comes in as a thirty-one year veteran (more like thirty-three, given how much being coached by Tom Thibodeau ages a player). It makes sense that Deng starts to begin with and as Ingram’s minutes increase Deng’s minutes at small-forward decrease, with his minutes at power-forward going up.

Starting Power Forward

We saw enough of both Julius Randle and Larry Nance Jr. to know that both of them deserve to start on this roster, but neither are particularly great fantasy basketball options. With the addition of Deng, who will play more minutes at power forward as Ingram’s minutes creep, it makes drafting them even less appealing outside of Randle, who can give you PTS, REB and not much else.

Starting Center

This one will take the longest to play out, since the Lakers organization has to save face after handing Mozgov a 4yr/$64M deal, but by the end of the season Ivica Zubac should be competing for the starting center job.

Rise in Value

D’Angelo Russell

Russell should be the one who benefits the most from Kobe’s retirement, so long as he takes care of his Snapchat account. With no real competition at point guard (Jose Calderon will be his backup) and a player friendly coach in Luke Walton, the potential for big numbers is there for D’Angelo.

Jordan Clarkson

The other player to benefit the most from Kobe’s retirement is Clarkson. His usage rate should shoot up, along with the amount of shots he’ll be taking, and with a developing three-point shot, he makes for a good mid-round target.

Decrease in Value

Lou Williams

With the youth movement in play for 2016-2017 all signs are pointing to a reduced role for Williams, who should see a dip in both minutes and usage. He won’t completely be out of the rotation, and still has the potential to go on a hot streak, so keep an eye on him as a streaming option if you ever need 3PM.

Injury Risks

Timofey Mozgov

Yes, the 64 million dollar man comes with defects, and hasn’t played more than 50 games in a season since 2013-2014 (which bodes well for Zubac). He’s the kind of player I’d happily let somebody else draft and has very little upside.