As the Los Angeles Lakers prepare for the last 25 games of the season, Luke Walton has some goals for his team.
With 25 games to go, the Los Angeles Lakers will be trying to finish their season strong after some ups-and-downs prior to the All-Star break.
Now, the Lakers will try to continue to build a winning culture, and that starts with their young core. In the first half of the season, the Lakers have seen their young core of Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram, and Lonzo Ball all have bright moments.
Unfortunately for Ball, injuries have derailed his rookie season a bit. However, he is averaging 10.2 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 7.1 assists per game. Even though he struggled with his shot, Ball was shooting the basketball much better prior to getting injured.
After missing the last 15 games with his MCL sprain, Ball is expected to be ready for the final stretch of the season. In addition to Ball, Kuzma has had a very strong rookie season. As one of the best scorers in the rookie class, Kuzma appears to be a steal for the Lakers.
Even though we have seen the young core play well, Luke Walton wants to continue to grow some of these young players for the Lakers. Recently, he talked about some goals for the rest of the season to Matthew Moreno of LakersNation.com.
"“We want to continue to develop our young players. They need to keep playing, they need to keep getting reps, they need to keep finishing and learning how to win games. There’s a lot of little goals we have that we talk about. The main ones are our defense, our pace offensively, and continuing to give some of these young guys opportunities to grow, knowing we’re really going to need them in the future.”"
While Ball, Ingram, and Kuzma get most of the attention, the Lakers do have some other young players on the roster. Their other first-round pick, Josh Hart, has performed well when given the chance this season. As part of the future for the Lakers, expect to see Hart getting more consistent playing time for the rest of the season.
Some other young players that we might see more of is Thomas Bryant and Ivica Zubac. Prior to the All-Star break, Zubac had a monster game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. This will certainly be something that Walton will hope to see more of in the final 25 games.
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Since the Lakers don’t have their first-round pick this season, winning as many games as possible should be the goal. However, getting playing time and experience for some of their young players should be priority number one.