The best team in the West is obviously the Warriors once they get back to their winning ways here soon, but who is the team behind them? If we’re talking about the second best team in the West, then it’s wide open as it has ever been. Last year, it was the Rockets clear and cut, but with their struggles through the regular season so far, who is it? The Clippers and Grizzles will fall off, leaving the Lakers, Nuggets, and OKC as the options. Here is my argument for the Lakers.
LeBron James
First and foremost, adding LeBron James to your team will shoot you either to the top or damn close to it in the conference no questions asked. He obviously hasn’t slowed down with age as he dropped a 44 and 51 point game just a few weeks back. Magic doesn’t want LeBron to dominate the ball like he did in Cleveland, but that’s simply Bron’s game and it has worked for him the last 16 years. He is the greatest player of all time and with that being said, do I think that OKC and Denver can beat the Lakers on any given night? Yes I do. Will OKC or Denver be able to beat this team once the playoffs come around in a 7-game series? Not a chance.
Offense
LeBron is the only offensive star this team has, but make no mistake, this team is very good on offense. The Lakers, who are just now starting to put the puzzle pieces together, are already ranked 9th in total offense. We haven’t seen the best of this team yet by a long shot and they’re already top 10. Mark my words now, LA will be a top 5 offense by the end of the season. Offense wins games and championships in this league. Being good on offense is essentially all you need to be good at to be successful in the NBA. That is exactly what the Lakers are at this point.
Young Talent
With three guys that could potentially be all-stars in the future, a lot of how far the Lakers can go rely on these three guys. Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram, and THE Lonzo Ball. We haven’t seen the peak of any of these three yet, but it can only go up from here. Kyle Kuzma hasn’t missed a beat this year playing along side LeBron, and has actually played a bit better than last year. It seems that he is only making progress instead of regression into his second season. Brandon Ingram has still not came out of his shell yet. He has been containing himself his whole career, and still has even playing with LeBron so far this year. However, with a long season to go, Ingram still has some time to tap into that pile of potential that every knows he has. Lonzo Ball is a straight up playmaker, one of the best in the league. He is the modern day Rondo and by the looks of it, he could end up being the version of Rondo that has a consistent jump shot.
In Conclusion
We have yet to see exactly how good this team can be. I think that we know what we have in OKC and Denver. However, the Lakers are a big question mark that could turn into a very explosive team. We know what we have in Ball and Kuzma, but not Ingram. Kuzma will keep averaging about 16-17 ppg and Ball will keep being the elite playmaker he is. Ingram also averages about the same as Kuzma, but we all know that he could be lightyears better than that. As the season progresses, there are two things that will decide if the Lakers will be the second seed going into the playoffs. First, Brandon Ingram needs to become a 20 ppg scorer. Second, the Lakers need to improve on defense.
