The Los Angeles Lakers are entering this season with a lot of young players to develop. Their franchise player is no longer with them as Kobe Bryant decided to retire after a stellar 20-year career, and that leaves a lot of questions about the upcoming season.

With their core made up of very young players, the Lakers will start the season with the hopes of finding a go-to-player and have him turn into a superstar. After his recent guest appearance on The Vertical Podcast with Adrian Wojnarowski, the team's starting point guard D'Angelo Russell made a bold claim on how far he thinks the Lakers could go this season.

“Everyone knows it’s a rebuilding process, it’s going to take some time. But it’s up to us to make it happen right away, if we want it to happen right away we can do it. I feel like could make the playoffs this year, I feel like we could be a team to sneak some wins against some top teams in the league that they weren’t expecting us to win. The last few years we weren’t able to do that.

“It’s going to be a fun year, I’m really excited for it.”

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Russell might be expecting too much from his team who didn't even end up with a winning record in the preseason, but his belief in their abilities and the chemistry they've built will be their biggest weapon. At best, it may lead them to string a few wins together and surprise a lot of people in the process.

In order for them to make it to playoffs, however, their young players would need to show a lot of maturity beyond their years early in the season. If they'll be able to do that, Russell's goal for the Lakers this season might just come happen.