Hello, Lakers Nation. Welcome in to lunchtime with the Lakers. I am Trevor Lane, and we did get news a little bit ago from Dave McMedman of ESPN that LeBron James will not play tonight for the Lakers as they kick off preseason against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

So what are the Lakers going to do? Who is going to start for L.A. tonight against the Wolves with no LeBron James? J.J. Reddick has already revealed that is planned for the starting lineup for the regular season. It is DeAndro Russell, Austin Reeves, Rui Hachamura, LeBron James, Anthony Davis. That same starting lineup that closed out the season last year. Makes a lot of sense to have that continuity. Obviously with no LeBron tonight, they're going to have to switch things up. And I think there's a few different ways to look at this. And I'm curious what you guys think. So let me know in the chat section who you think the Lakers should put in the starting lineup. But let me tell you two things. I'm going to tell you, number one, what I think they are going to do. And number two, what I think they should do because they are two very, very different things.

Number one, what I think they are going to do, and number two, what I think they should do because they are two very, very different things. Number one, what I think they are going to do. And I don't have a problem with it, but I think Max Christie winds up sliding in, starts nominally at the three, and then Rui Hachamara slides down to the four.

You look at this roster right now.

There's no Jared Vanderbilt. If Jared Vanderbilt was available, I would say, okay, you just start Vando, and that's it. There you go. Off you go. Jared Vanderbilt joins the starting lineup, and off you go. All good. You don't have that, though. No Vando, so you don't have the ability to do that.

No Christian would either.

So that makes your options at the fore. All good. You don't have that, though. No Vando, so you don't have the ability to do that.

No Christian would either. So that makes your options at the four extremely limited. Now, you could say, well, start Jackson Hayes then. Start him at the four, start two bigs.

And then you go, AD and Jackson Hayes together on the floor. And then you're going to bring in Colin Casleton. If he's still no Christian Coloco, so you can bring in Colin Castleton off the bench as you're back up big. I think it's going to be Max Christie, though. We've heard too many good things about him. We've heard people have been raving about how he's been playing in camp. So I think it's going to be Max Christie starting at the three, and then it'll be Rui Hachamara sliding down to the four,

Anthony Davis at the five.

That's what I think is going to happen.

I think that makes a lot of sense for the Lakers,

but what I think should happen,

not necessarily what I want to see,

but what I think should happen is that Anthony Davis doesn't play either.

That's what I think.

I think Anthony Davis should not play either.

And here's the reason why.

Because the whole point of preseason for this Lakers team, it's about getting continuity

and building familiarity under a new system, under a new head coach with JJ Redick.

As somebody who's going to be watching the game, who's going to be calling the game, by the way, come join us live tonight on the Lakers Nation YouTube channel. We'll do the live play-by-play for the game. We're going to be hanging out talking hoops. Afterwards, we'll do the live post game show. So coming out with us tonight, 7.30 Pacific time is the tip-off for Lakers Wolves.

But if I'm the Lakers, just bench AD too.

...