Through 11 games, the Los Angeles Lakers have a 5-6 record. Recently, Luke Walton talked about the difference between them and contenders.
Coming into the 2017-18 season, there was a lot of excitement for the Los Angeles Lakers. After a good offseason, the Lakers were certainly an improved team. However, how much they improved was the real question.
This offseason, the Lakers might have gotten better, but so did the Western Conference. For the past number of years, the West has been much more difficult than the East. After All-Star players like Paul Millsap, Paul George, and Jimmy Butler all headed West, the conference became even better.
For the Lakers, few thought that they would be able to contend for a playoff spot this season. Recently, Luke Walton talked about what separates the Lakers from the contenders in the NBA. Here’s what he had to say to Bill Oram of the OC Register.
"“Most of those teams have been together for a while,” Walton said, “and have gone after this and they’ve failed together. There’s nothing like failing to bring a good team together because then you realize how bad that hurts and how much more you want it.”"
As the Lakers are currently built, they are an extremely young team. With 80 percent of the current starting lineup being under 25-years-old, they are still growing as a team. In the NBA, it takes time for young players to grow and develop. When there aren’t a lot of veterans surrounding them, those growing pains can be rough to watch at times.
Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka have certainly done a nice job building this Lakers team, but they have a lot of growing to do. Like Walton said, the Lakers will need to go through some failures before they can ultimately succeed.
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Like we have seen with the Golden State Warriors recently, success doesn’t happen overnight. The Warriors were not an instant success with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. It took some time for them to gel and surround their core with the right pieces. For the Lakers, they appear to be following that same model. While it might not happen this season or next season, success will come.