In my lineup projection, I don't see what role will Carmelo fit. Maybe the best thing to do is for him and Lebron not to play at the same time. He will be the replacement for Lebron for substitution. Melo can also be like Kuzma or KCP but that's not his style.

The Lakers need some more games to test adjustments. They should play at their whole roster on their pre-season games.

It's not simple. What if while Carmelo is missing shots, but he is contributing well to other aspects of the game like assist, rebounds, and backcourt plays, is he still be subject to a quick substitution? The rotation is based on originally provided minutes. Even the player is performing well, there are really times that a coach will still choose to bench those guys especially if not part of the solid starting lineup. Lots of bench players that doing good but still ended up mostly on the bench warming the sits.

I think that Dwight's defensive ability is getting overrated.

He's very old and getting less mobile, and even though he'll be a plus on half court defense, he definitely cannot guard the pick and roll as efficiently as the other smalls.

Carmelo can be a plug and play type of guy. He will get you buckets, guaranteed, but he'll probably be replaced if he's cold.

LeBron still have smething to say behind, if Melo is not performing well mayeb he won't get that time but I guess he will try his best. Melo and LeBron have a good bond being friends and that's enough to trust Melo taking those shots.

He can deliver for sure, we've seen him playing with the Blazers and he still hitting those shots. With a much higher confidence that there are someone who can take that offensive rebounds, he may take more shots with high confidence.

It's just less than a week and we will see them play.

That's the thing, he is not as consistent as he was before, we can understand because he is not the star player now like he used to be when he was still playing with the New York Knicks. Time changes, but at least Melo was given a chance to get signed, first with Blazers and now with the Lakers. Who knows, if he wins a championship here he will decide to retire, at least he was a champion when he retired.

Well, I don't know, there are some games that Melo plays reasonably well, others he's terrible.
In the last few seasons he hasn't played with excellent allstars players teammates on the team, but now in the Lakers, there are some chances for him to improve his game. I don't know, only the future will tell us if he can play well compared to past seasons.

Yes I agree with what you said, I believe AD is better playing PF. Howard and DeAndre Jordan have a better profile for playing in C.
Ahh, I almost forgot, AD has a shoot, is faster and has a much better ball handling than Howard and DeAndre.

Probably Vogel will add AD to get a feel to how the team will get used to it.

Exactly, I believe that depending on which team the Lakers are playing, Vogel can make several team modifications to get a feel for what position each player will play in during a game.
For example, Melo can play (SF or PF), LeBron (SG, SF and PF) and AD (PF or C).
And with that, Vogel will be able to gradually alternate until he get to assemble an ideal team for that game.

I think this is his last chance to get that ring because he is teamed with the players who have a higher chance to get it. There can be no opportunity such as good like this in the future for him if he doesn't get it this year. He needs to put it all in this team or give everything to help the Lakers get back the championship they really want. most of the time we think that skillful players like them has their high chance to get a ring but it depends on what team they are belong.

If he can be productive within his minutes which I doubt at this stage since I'm thinking he'd be getting fewer minutes this time compared to what he has at Portland. He's got 10+ points/min in the recent stats he got but seems it's declining, in regards to retirement I think it's a best thing if he gets a ring first but looks like age hits him already and it's just a matter of time before he announced it.

Vogel needs to space his other players as well, even other coaches might bench someone if he is missing shots specially a player of Carmelo's caliber (no longer in his prime). There are times in Portland last year that he was bench because he is shooting awfully. What more in the Lakers line up wherein there is a lot that can replace him like THT, Malik Monk or Nunn, more younger, more legs and could contribute even more in both are (defense and offense). That's why I said Vogel will not make things complicate that will cause him problems later if he keep Anthony on the court with a bad shooting percentage.