Los Angeles Lakers: 5 reasons why they will surprise the league

1. The young core is ready to take the next step

People that are saying that this team will miss the playoffs are vastly underrating the great young players that already Lakers had on the roster.

When their entire team was healthy last season, they already looked close to being a playoff team. Even with Ingram and Ball missing more than 20 games each last season the Lakers still managed to win 35 games and improve their win total by nine games.

Their young core was the biggest reason why their record was much improved. They lost Julius Randle, who was arguably the best young player from last season, but they held on to Ingram, Ball, Kyle Kuzma, and Josh Hart who all look like they can be future Laker stars.

Kuzma played the best of the bunch last season, putting up some of the best scoring numbers for a rookie in Lakers history. He was the Lakers leading scorer, averaging 16.1 points a game and made the All-Rookie First team.

But Ball and Ingram have the most room to grow and arguably have higher ceilings than he does because they are younger. They both are currently only 20 years old and they have already shown flashes of brilliance in their short NBA careers.

If they both can improve their 3-point shooting, they have the potential to develop into perennial All-Stars at their positions. These two guys should benefit the most learning from LeBron and the rest of the veterans, so that could be scary for the rest of the league.

Josh Hart also played well last season and even broke into the starting lineup at the end of the year.

Despite his success, he decided to take on the challenge of playing in this year’s Summer League and he dominated, winning the MVP of the tournament and carrying the Lakers to the championship game. If he can take momentum into this year’s regular season, then he will be a great weapon for the Lakers to utilize off the bench next season and could even push to start.

James is used to playing with a group of proven veterans, but playing alongside the Lakers young core could be a nice change up for him. It will certainly give him a jolt of energy and he will, in turn, help all of them improve their game both mentally and physically.

These budding young stars combined with LeBron James and the rest of the Meme Team could fall flat or their faces or they could also shock the league and compete for a title next season. Rob Pelinka and Magic sought out to build this team with a balance of experienced veterans to go along with their homegrown youth, and they did a decent job of accomplishing that.