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Heading into the 2018 offseason, 417 different players had worn a Los Angeles Lakers uniform—or a Minneapolis one prior to the franchise's location change in 1960—for at least one minute.
But with one announcement, LeBron James shuffled everything up by agreeing to join the Purple and Gold on a four-year, $153.3 million deal.
James won't be the only player adding to that three-digit tally in 2018-19. Including draft picks, undrafted free agents and offseason signings that have already come to pass, Isaac Bonga, JaVale McGee, Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, Malik Newman, Rajon Rondo, Lance Stephenson, Moritz Wagner, Travis Wear and others could all swell the ranks.
Spoiler alert: They aren't going to make these rankings. James is.
If you're thinking this is just another excuse to highlight the four-time MVP's remarkable legacy by placing him above a litany of Hall-of-Fame talents....well, you're right! We aren't worried about what these men have done only while wearing Lakers threads, but rather throughout the entirety of their careers. Therefore, James isn't the least bit disadvantaged as we try to figure out whether he's the best player ever to grace this historic franchise with his talents.
To do so objectively, we're turning to the numbers.
For all 417 present and former Lakers, as well as the four offseason additions who have already logged time in the NBA, we pulled scores in five different overarching metrics: NBA Math's career total points added, career player efficiency rating, career win shares, career win shares per 48 minutes and a modified version of average game score (such that all rebounds count the same since early-NBA stats don't differentiate between offensive and defensive boards). These blend together looks at volume and efficiency to reward both those who excelled over shorter careers and those who maintained their status for longer periods.
To standardize between five metrics that operate on drastically different scales, we found the z-scores in each category and summed them to find a player's total score. Those cumulative z-scores are all that matter for these rankings, and you can see the results at the top of each slide next to the player's name.