Recently, Metta World Peace made a bold statement regarding the Los Angeles Lakers. Does he believe they can make the playoffs?
Through 17 games, the Los Angeles Lakers have a 7-10 record. After a few years of really struggling, the Lakers are certainly a better team this season than in the last few. However, just because the Lakers are improved, that doesn’t guarantee that they’ll make the playoffs.
After the offseason was over, it looked like the Western Conference was going to be absolutely stacked this season. With multiple All-Stars leaving the Eastern Conference for the West, the better of the two conferences got even better on paper.
Despite many teams being very talented in the Western Conference, we have quite seen the dominance that was originally expected. Teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Clippers and Utah Jazz are all performing below expectations.
With some teams struggling out West early on, Metta World Peace believes that the Lakers can sneak their way into an 8th seed.
Making the playoffs would be a great accomplishment for the Lakers this season. However, it might be a bit of a stretch for the Lakers. Even though some of the better teams have struggled, it is still very early in the season and teams like the Clippers and Jazz have a lot of talent.
For the Lakers a playoff trip this season would be huge for their growth as a team, but developing their young talent is the most important thing right now. With a lot of young talent on the team, the Lakers very well could get better as the season goes on.
Furthermore, all that young talent will have off nights like we have seen this season. In the NBA, it is very rare to see a predominantly young team like Lakers make the playoffs. As a player that is no stranger to playoff basketball, MWP might see something that he likes in this Lakers group. While it is good to be optimistic, its hard to expect that the Lakers will make the playoffs this season.