Jay Williams reveals sad truth about LeBron James' Lakers

Not so long ago, the Los Angeles Lakers were considered the team to beat in the NBA. Legends like Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, and many more led them to the pinnacle of competitive basketball.

Moreover, some people thought that the revamped Lakers would be one of the strongest squads to come out of the Western Conference this season. Fast-forward to today and that just hasn’t been the case.

LeBron James has missed some time with an ankle injury, Anthony Davis has failed to lead them to wins, and Russell Westbrook has been erratic to start the season. Clearly, something will have to change.

Jay Williams Says Young Players Aren’t Afraid Of The Lakers

And, according to ESPN’s Jay Williams, it seems like younger players aren’t scared of the Lakers anymore. Apparently, those days of the purple-and-gold inspiring fear and respect are long behind them:

(Transcript via Fadeaway World)

“I’ve had some conversations over the last several days with some younger players in the league, which is kinda shocking to me because I haven’t heard a conversation like this about a LeBron James team, where they don’t find the Lakers intimidating at all. People are actually excited about playing this team… I think there’s a level of players looking at them and saying, ‘We don’t really respect the Lakers.’ Even though they got a championship, this team is older, they don’t play with a sense of urgency and yeah they can turn it on here and there but, maybe they won’t.”

It’s still way too early to sound off the alarms. Let’s not ignore the fact that the team has yet to be at full strength and that they barely played together during the preseason. All great players eventually figure things out, and hopefully, this All-Star studded team won’t be the exception to that rule.