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It has been a rough few years for the Los Angeles Lakers. The storied franchise has been a regular in the NBA Draft Lottery with a lot of talk about the team potentially tanking the last couple of seasons to improve their draft position or to simply keep their first-round draft picks.
Coming into the 2017-18 NBA season, tanking is no longer an option for the team, and it may very well be a thing of the past for the Lakers with the team's first-round pick in 2018 going to the Boston Celtics. Forward Larry Nance Jr. couldn't be happier that all the talk of tanking will no longer be surrounding the team because he wouldn't be a part of it otherwise, via Tania Ganguli of the L.A. Times.
“I can’t wait,” Nance said. “Hearing all that tanking talk [last year] is like nails on the chalkboard to a competitor. I don’t even want to play if tanking is on the table. … This season is about improvement and wins. And getting to be the best team and having the best chemistry that we can possibly have and getting everybody to play the best that they can play. That’s what I’ve been waiting for. … I, for one, am ecstatic. I’m eager. I wish the first game was tomorrow.”
This season the Lakers will embark on a new era. Rookie Lonzo Ball has breathed new life into this organization along with Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka now running the front office and the prospect of superstars like LeBron James and Paul George potentially joining the team next summer.
Although there are still a lot of young and unproven players on this Lakers squad, the future looks bright in Los Angeles as they may begin to right ship with Ball and experienced players like Nance helping lead the way.
The Lakers will play their first preseason game on Sat. Sept. 30 with Nance and company facing off against the revamped Minnesota Timberwolves at the Honda Center in Anaheim.
