The Lakers have had quite the offseason so far. Starting with signing 3-time champion LeBron James to a 4-year deal, as well as bringing in veterans in 4-time All-Star Rajon Rondo, Lance Stephenson, JaVale McGee, and Michael Beasley, the team has made strides and look to improve upon their 35-win season last year. Mixing these seasoned veterans with the young Lakers core is a recipe for success. But still, there are doubters in what this team is capable of and Kyle Kuzma, a young and talented forward on the team, spoke about them to ESPN.com’s Ohm Youngmisuk:
“We are definitely excited about the roster and the pieces that we have. And we think a lot of people are underestimating us. It is definitely going to be fun playing with all these guys.”
Perhaps Kuzma was speaking about ESPN.com’s Kevin Pelton, who predicted that the Lakers still would not make the playoffs in the competitive Western Conference. The team’s success will hinder on two challenges: building chemistry and having the young players improve their game tremendously.
Kuzma had this to say during the same interview regarding the roster changes:
“A lot of people say we got a lot of different people, a lot of new people. But change can be a good thing. It is not necessarily always a bad thing. There’s a lot of teams in the NBA that need to work on their chemistry; we are just one of them.”
Chemistry is only something that comes with practice and familiarity with teammates, which means the newly acquired players need to quickly get into rhythm with the young core. But Kuzma isn’t worried. He had this message for those who doubted the young players on the team:
“I don’t know why people kind of just rule us out because we are young. We are hungry. We are competitive. Anybody that watched us play last year, we were in a lot of games.”
Kuzma finished his rookie year averaging 16.1 PPG on 45.0% from the floor and 36.6% from 3, as well as 6.3 RPG and 1.8 APG. 2nd round pick Lonzo Ball will also look to improve upon his previous season where he averaged 10.2 PPG on only 36.0% from the floor to go along with 7.2 APG and 6.9 RPG.
But Kuzma knows the effect that having LeBron on the roster will have on the overall mentality of the team:
“Having one of the greatest players of all time is going to raise what we do, raise our level of focus and the team to a higher level. I don’t really see why [there’s a need to be] so patient.”
LeBron’s ability to make plays for his teammates will allow him to involve the young Lakers more and more, thus giving them far more chances to prove themselves. He forces defenses to focus on him and therefore divert attention from his other teammates.
The team seems to be missing a few key pieces in order to rival the defending champion Golden State Warriors, but who knows that this team will be capable of, especially with a mix of hungry, athletic youthful players and experienced, battle-ready veterans, all led by King James.
Feature Image via Flikr/miguel.discart
