The Los Angeles Lakers were, once again, one of the most aggressive teams at the beginning of the offseason. They added Russell Westbrook during the NBA Draft and signed multiple veterans to round up their roster.
Unsurprisingly, all the moves they’ve made thus far have fueled plenty of debate around social media. Some believe that they’re just too old to be healthy and fresh come playoff time, others saythat the fit isn’t good, and others believe that they’re too talented and will be just fine.
Whatever is the case, the fact is that the Lakers have yet to play a single game together with their new roster. And that’s why it’s still way too early to be thinking about winning an NBA Championship.
Phil Handy On The Lakers’ Title Hopes: We Still Got A Lot Of Work To Do
At least, that’s the mindset within the organization as of today. According to assistant coach Phil Handy, even though the Lakers are the clear-cut favorites out of the West on the paper, they’re still a ways away from competing:
“Paper doesn’t win championships for us,” Handy said on Sirius XM NBA Radio. “Those names that are on that paper, are some phenomenal names… We gotta do our work and make sure we gel. Do we fit? These guys, they gotta figure out ways to play with each other and sacrifice, and let their names take over. You know, you look at that piece of paper and say, Lakers are loaded, automatic championship. Nah man, we got a lot of work to do in terms of just gelling, finding our rhythm and being able to be cohesive as a unit.”
The Lakers have enough talent in their ranks to be one of the best teams in the world next season. If LeBron James and Anthony Davis manage to stay on the court, there’s no reason to think they couldn’t dominate and make it back to the NBA Finals.
Then again, they have to take a ‘one day at the time’ kind of approach right now, as they still need to figure out their new identity and get used to playing with each other. That’s easier said than done.
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