NBA: 5 positional battles to watch as training camps begin

Los Angeles Lakers: Dennis Schroder vs. Alex Caruso

"“I did this off the bench stuff already in two years with OKC. I think I try to move forward, and I think with AD and LeBron I can be helpful as a starter in the [point guard] position,” Schroder says to LA Times’ Dan Woike."

The player who came second in Sixth Man of the Year voting last season says he should be starting. That seems fair enough.

Maybe he should be starting on a team, maybe he shouldn’t? But how effective would he be when he’s starting next to LeBron James?

Schroder is best when he has the ball in his hands, and he had all the time in the world to do that in OKC when he was backing up Chris Paul and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. When he’s on the court with LeBron, it gets hard to convince yourself to give him the ball and let LeBron work off-ball.

Mike Trudell adds that Schroder is going to get “serious consideration” at the starting point guard spot but in my opinion, it should stay as a consideration and not go too far.

A low-usage 3-and-D guard like Alex Caruso should (and literally just did in the Finals) work better with LeBron. Yes, Schroder probably gets to close games next to LeBron, but for the majority of the game, they can share ball-handling duties by not aligning their minutes too closely.

At the end of games, throw all the offensive options out there with Schroder, LeBron, and Anthony Davis and scare defenses who will struggle to contain all three weapons.

Although, I do see a world in which Schroder starts. Let him start, keep your player happy with their role and it has been well-documented how much players aren’t going to try that hard this season with the NBA loosening their rules around resting outside of nationally televised games. If LeBron sits for half of the season, that’s half the season Schroder gets to run the show. We’ll have to wait and see.