After acquiring superstar forward LeBron James, all eyes are on the Los Angeles Lakers. The team posted a record of 35-47 last season, good for the 11th seed in the Western Conference and a whopping 12 games out of playoff contention.
After adding LeBron as well as a handful of veteran players on one-year contracts, everyone in the league expects the Lakers to greatly improve. But will they improve enough to legitimately make a run at Western Conference powerhouses like the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets?
Former Cleveland Cavaliers general manager David Griffin sat down with Howard Beck of The Full 48 to discuss current NBA happenings and offered his input on what struggles the Lakers team will face. Griffin predicted that the Lakers will have to figure things out early, or the whole season could go down the drain.
“We started our first year together — with LeBron back and Kevin Love and Kyrie [Irving] — we started 19-20 that year…And when you go through that kind of upheaval early on, in the East, you’re able to not have a great deal of stress around, ‘We have to make the playoffs.’ And obviously with that roster, at the time we put it together, we felt really strongly that, if we just get in the playoffs, we’re gonna wreak havoc… In the West, you don’t have that. You don’t get the advantage of, figure it out on the fly and let it take a great deal of time and start out 19-20 because your pieces are terrible fits.”
Griffin makes some excellent points. Right now, the Western Conference is significantly stronger than the Eastern Conference, and if LeBron and company do have a spell where they go below .500, it could doom their playoff chances.
Griffin is also right about how LeBron would rely on entering a new gear come playoff time while coasting through the regular season. These days are over now that he is in the West.
Only time will tell how LeBron will handle this new challenge. Millions will be watching his first step of the journey on Oct. 18 against the Portland Trail Blazers.
Follow Us
Subscribe