Lakers Rumors: Latest Buzz on Anthony Davis' Role, Joel Ayayi to Wizards

The Los Angeles Lakers are set to kick off their regular season Tuesday against the Golden State Warriors.

While the Lakers are expected to be a competitive team centered around the Big Three of LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook, it's hard to know exactly what the team is going to look like. The Lakers went winless in the preseason but almost certainly didn't give many accurate looks at their lineup and role plans.

Coach Frank Vogel did say James and Westbrook are going to take turns being the centerpiece of the offense.

"There's definitely a willingness for those guys to share and to sacrifice and to coexist out there," Vogel said, per Broderick Turner of Yahoo News.

We're also going to see plenty of Davis though in what role remains a bit more of a mystery. With Westbrook at point guard and James at forward, Davis is likely to slot in at center. However, that won't be Davis' only role, according to Lakers sideline reporter Mike Trudell.

"We're not only going to see AD start at the 5," Trudell said (h/t Jacob Rude of Silver Screen & Roll). "There's going to be plenty of times where Dwight [Howard] and DeAndre [Jordan] do start. ... I know that there are plenty of people internally that still like starting a classic big."

The Lakers have more traditional centers in Howard and Jordan, so if the ability to put a "classic big" on the court is certainly there. However, Trudell noted that we may only see Davis out of the center spot "like 10 minutes of the game, in the first and the third quarters."

As for how the starting lineup pans out, Vogel also said he plans to consult James and Davis on those decisions.

"We’ll have conversations, both with the coaching staff, the front office and with our captains, and see what everybody is feeling about it," he said, per Harrison Faigen of Silver Screen & Roll.

One player who won't be in the lineup at all this season is rookie shooting guard Joel Ayayi. An undrafted free agent out of Gonzaga, Ayayi had signed a two-way contract with Los Angeles but was part of the Friday's cutdown to 15 players.

According to Dave McMenamin of ESPN, however, Los Angeles had hoped to re-sign Ayayi to G-League affiliate, the South Bay Lakers:

Unfortunately, any hope L.A. had of keeping Ayayi in its future plans was scuttled on Sunday, when the Washington Wizards claimed him off waivers.

A three-year player at Gonzaga, Ayayi started 31 of 32 games last year and averaged 12.0 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.7 assists while shooting 57.5 percent from the floor and 38.9 percent from three-point range. He was rated as the third-best undrafted prospect available this summer by ESPN.

No. 2 on that list was former Oklahoma guard Austin Reaves, who parlayed his two-way tryout into a two-year, $2.5 million standard contract with the Lakers.