As far as I know, anti-tampering rule refers to team approaching players way before their contract expires with their respective teams. For instance Chicago might be talking to Lonzo Ball when he was still in contact with New Orleans before their actual sign and trade deal (I might be wrong with my interpretations though). And to add to add, the investigations might center on the player or the team itself.

Yeah, Melo will likely come out of the bench to replace Lebron in the forward position. Maybe we can see them together in the court but not that often though. But with a deep bench, the Lakers can experiment with their starting 5's and shift players around to find a perfect combination. Ellington could also be inserted as you have said, specially if they needed an outside shooter in the mold of KCP.

That's normal, Lakers are a big team, they can afford to sign more players, and having Lebron in the team makes the team confident that they will again win a championship. I think they learned from their mistakes, they miss the chance for a repeat because of an injury, having more players that are capable to carry the team when one star player are injured would still make them a good contender.

They are signing short contracts for veteran players as they think chemistry won't be an issue for them.
With their experience, they could just go out individually in offense and if they miss, they will just to do better defensively which most of them are good at.
It's a good experiment but I doubt it will work with teams that has great chemistry like Bucks and Suns.
Let's analyze it maybe after 10 games. They may show worse at the first few games.

Not just the injuries, but letting go of the majority of players that bring them the championship, Rondo, Howard, Avery Bradley, Danny Green and Javale. And chooses to keep Kuzma, KCP, Caruso who didn't perform well in the playoffs. And now they have overhaul the whole system and get this veteran are last 1 year minimum contract to help them win another ring.

I do not get all these "investigations" that are selective, I mean we knew that Durant would be joining Irving and do this Nets deal waaaaaay before it ever happened, even Warriors were aware of this before it happened and there were even talks about they didn't care about pushing Durant on finals because even if he got injured he would not be their problem.

In the past 10+ years of NBA there is probably at least 20-30 deals I could count that was done way before the time, tampering is not as weird as it gets, like even Lebron did the whole FA thing way before deadline started. This is just way too boring of a case, even if they penalize these teams, others will still do it anyway.

So, these are variables that can be analyzed.

I have no doubt that Melo or Howard can start as a starter in some games. We see for example what DRose has shown in some games in the past.

LeBron is a wild player (I think he is the most flexible and well-rounded player in NBA history). He can easily play as SG, SF and PF. (maybe PG or C)

The Lakers will have several options to mix the team, with the goal of building a team that has great chemistry.
If Melo and Howard only play half what they were in their prime, I'm pretty sure the Lakers will be champions this season! But it's too early for me to say this accurately
But I still believe they will collaborate much more with their experience than their Lakers skills.

After being the Vice President of the NBPA, CJ McCollum is the new elected president of NBPA.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/31982133/sources-portland-trail-blazers-cj-mccollum-elected-nbpa-president

Regarding the issues about the investigations being shared by others. Why now?
Draymond Green also met with KD years ago to pursue him and join GSW before trades opened. Lebron had been meeting players to put them in their Lakers roster.
What is the difference with Lonzo Ball and Kyle Lowry and they are being attacked? They say it's a complicated issue, we may need to wait for NBA to stretch the details about it.

Wow, I didn't even realize @Oasisman had lineup Dennis Schröder on Lakers team.
I just did a quick research and i found, Schröder has great chances to play for the Celtics.
Let's see what the Lakers will get in this exchange!

By the way, I liked Schröder, he was a good player (not an allstar), but he's still a missing player on the team.

As far as Vogel goes, he didn't give Dwight Howard a precious time during the big man's tenure in the 2020 Bubble. He just becomes a starter a couple of times. The same experience happens in his Philadelphia Sixers tenure last season where he only started 6 times. That's one of the reasons why Howard's overall stats that year is far from his average or I considered it low. I'm not really expecting this guy to be one of the assets of the Lakers this upcoming season but since he's a Center and the Lakers are lacking it, he is a good backup.

About Melo, I'm sure he will be more utilized. Vogel must try giving him more playing time as he still has it and his shooting stroke is still good as we have seen in his former team, Portland Trail Blazers. Another good backup role right from the bench.