Los Angeles Lakers: Tyson Chandler praises the young core

After the season, Los Angeles Lakers center, Tyson Chandler, talked about the potential of the young core.

The Los Angeles Lakers might have had a disappointing 2018-19 season, but that doesn’t mean that the future can’t be bright.

Since the Lakers were able to sign LeBron James last summer, they gave themselves a fighters chance against anyone in the NBA. While James missed the most games due to injury in his career last season, he was playing at an MVP level before that. The Lakers were also one of the best teams in the Western Conference before the injury.

The James injury really knocked the Lakers out of contention in the Western Conference, but they can certainly bounce back in a big way next season. The Lakers will have enough cap space to sign a max level player or a couple of really nice complementary pieces. In addition to the cap space, the Lakers have a really strong young core.

During his exit interview, one of the veterans of the Lakers talked about the young core. Here’s what Tyson Chandler said about the potential of the young core to Julian Mitchell of LakersNation.com.

"“It’s tough to win in this league and it takes time to build. It takes time to put together the right pieces. I definitely think they have those pieces here. I thought so from afar when I had a chance to compete against Zo, B.I., Kuz, Josh,” Chandler said. “And I feel even better about it being here because it’s a great crop, great group of young men who really understand how to play the game. But I feel like they have big-time potential. They’re nowhere near even scratching the surface of what they’ll be capable of.”"

Seeing the high praise from Chandler about the young core is certainly encouraging to see. Chandler has been around the league quite a bit, and has won a championship with the Dallas Mavericks. Chandler has played with a lot of the best in the business, and praise from him about what the young core can be certainly means a lot.

With a long offseason ahead of them, the young core of the Lakers will hopefully get healthy and continue to get better. Injuries were a real issue for them all season, and that will hopefully be something that they don’t have to worry about next season. While Chandler likely won’t be back next season, hopefully the young core was able to pick up a few things from his veteran presence.