The basketball journey will take weird twists and turns. Sometimes you’re LeBron James. Sometimes you’re Duncan Robinson. Most guys in the League are somewhere in between. You just never know how you get there and you just never know how long you’re going to stay. 

Let’s take a deep dive into the Los Angeles Lakers roster and look at their pathways with some personal stories on some of the players. 

First, the starters…

LEBRON JAMES (No. 1 ranked player by Rivals.com in 2003, 2003 NBA Draft, 1st round, 1st overall pick)

The first time I ever saw LeBron James play was at the Greensboro Coliseum in 2003. I had to see the show. He delivered. And has delivered ever since. I wish I had a chance to see more of him back then as a prep star. I watched him every chance I could on TV just like everyone else. 

ANTHONY DAVIS (No. 1 ranked player by 247 Sports in 2011, Kentucky, 2012 NBA Draft, 1st round, 1st overall pick)

If I have one regret in my hoops career it is this - I missed a front row seat for the Anthony Davis prep experience. I was out of hoops for a couple of years and spent my time on the Oregon football beat.  I don’t recall seeing much of him as a prep star. I’ll forever be bummed out by that. Just for context to his class, there were those who thought Austin Rivers was a better prospect than him coming out of high school.

DANNY GREEN (No. 31 ranked player by Rivals in 2005, North Carolina, 2009 NBA Draft, 2nd round, 46th overall pick)

The first time I remember seeing Danny Green play was back at the Charlie Weber invitational - one of the best events on the East Coast for over a decade - on the campus of Georgetown. The native New Yorker was a corner three guy back then, too. He was a non-ranked guy at this event but kept his upward trajectory, eventually blowing up at the prestigious ABCD camp. Green was a multi-skilled guard who just made the game come easy. I’m not surprised to see him stick as long as he has in the NBA as a championship level role player. 

KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE (No. 12 ranked player by Rivals in 2011, Georgia, 2013 NBA Draft, 1st round, 8th overall pick)

I drove down to Columbus, GA back in 2009 for the Riverfest event that started off the travel season. One of the main reasons was to see this kid named Kentavious Caldwell play. All the hoop mavens were telling me about. I kept up with him through hyper local media coverage and knew it was time to go down and see him play. I wrote: “The top spot for the class of 2011 is wide open in Georgia and there is a good chance that the 6-5 guard brings home that title at the end of the spring. In the semi-finals of the Riverfest, Caldwell showed why he will be in such high regard by the high-majors this summer. He drilled five three-pointers in the first half and kept the defense on it’s heels with his offensive ability. Caldwell brings a little bit of everything to the table. He’s on his way to stardom nationally, too.” Enjoy the NBA Finals, KCP. You’ve come a long way. For the record, I think he is one of the most underrated players, if that’s even possible given his career and accolades, from the state of Georgia.

MARKIEFF MORRIS (No. 49 ranked player by Rivals.com in 2008, Kansas, 2011 NBA Draft, 1st round, 13th overall pick)

During my time at rivals.com, I was obsessed with watching teams from Philly. I loved the toughness, the grit and the competitiveness players from Philly played with. Enter the Morris twins. Markieff and his twin Marcus starred for the Hunting Park Warriors and were a must-see pair at the Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions. The 2008 class was very deep with NBA guys and even as a top 50 guy, it doesn’t surprise anyone that he developed into a long time starting NBA player. He was a modern-day four man long before his peers. His brother Marcus was No. 29 overall in the class. 

RAJON RONDO (No. 25 ranked player by Rivals.com in 2004, Kentucky, 2006 NBA Draft, 1st round, 21st overall pick)

Rondo had a long, strange high school career and recruitment. I’d call Oak Hill coach Steve Smith a lot and ask what the story was about every other week at one point. On one day he was leaning to Georgia. Then it was Illinois. Then it was Louisville, for a long time, then it was Charlotte or Maryland or USC and so on and so forth. Then it was Louisville again. Then it was finally Kentucky. As temperamental as Rondo is now, he was the same way as a recruit. The thing was, Rondo wasn’t a highly rated guy at the time. We had him around the 75 mark in our national ratings. Needless to say, he kept climbing. If Twitter were a thing in the early 2000s, Rondo’s recruitment would be one of the most tracked and most wild.

DWIGHT HOWARD (No. 1 ranked player by Rivals.com in 2004, 2004 NBA Draft, 1st round, 1st overall pick)

If you’ve ever read one word from me over the last two decades or shared a bench at a game and we start talking hoops, you will quickly gather my appreciation for Dwight Howard in my career. He’s the most physically gifted player I’ve seen outside of LeBron that I’ve seen and covered in person. Howard was truly a man amongst boys. I had an exclusive front row seat to his prep career and will always appreciate that. The bar, for me, starts with Howard and paint domination. There have been some that came close but the former Southwest Atlanta Christian big man is as good as I’ve ever seen. 

DAVONTE CACOK (Not nationally ranked, UNC Wilmington, undrafted)

Outside of his coaches and his family, I’m not sure there was anyone that believed more in Cacok in high school quite like I did. I remember the first time I watched him play I was blown away by what I saw. I couldn’t even get to my car before I called three high major coaches and told them they  needed to offer him right away. One of those teams was a Final Four team.  No one bit. It was frustrating. Cacok was on the verge of a blow up. N one was entirely sure about him. He was too short and too unskilled, they said. So he picked the program where he could play and develop. After a great run with the Atlanta All-Stars, Cacok committed to UNC Wilmington and turned out to be one of the best rebounders and successful players ever at a mid-major basketball school. He did the work and parlayed that to a roster spot with the Lakers. 

JR SMITH (No. 8 ranked player by Rivals.com in 2004, North Carolina, 2017 NBA Draft, 1st round, 14th overall pick)

My name is Earl. That was the name of a comedy on NBC from 2005 to 2009. We used to always joke that Earl Smith was so legendary that they had to name a TV show after his. You now know Earl as JR Smith. Earl, as we had him listed in our Rivals database, was was an absolute stud at the Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions, the premier event in the country for nearly two decades. Smith was entertaining then as much as he has been in his NBA career. You never knew what you were going to get. You did, however, know you were going to get something interesting and entertaining. He signed a National Letter of Intent with North Carolina and kept people on edge before he announced he was going pro out of high school. 

KYLE KUZMA (No. 187 ranked player composite by 247 Sports in 2014, Utah, 2017 NBA Draft, 1st round, 27th overall pick)

JAVALE MCGEE (Unranked in 2006, Nevada, 2008 NBA Draft, 1st round, 18th overall pick)

ALEX CARUSO (No. 85 ranked player composite by 247 Sports in 2012, Texas A&M, Undrafted)

QUINN COOK (No. 33 ranked player composite by 247 Sports in 2011, Duke, Undrafted)

DION WAITERS (No. 21 ranked player composite by 247 Sports in 2012, Syracuse, 2012 NBA Draft, 1st round, 4th overall pick)

JARED DUDLEY (Not ranked in 2003 by Rivals, Boston College, 2007 NBA Draft, 1st round, 22nd overall pick)