2.) How is the conditioning of the Los Angeles Lakers?
One of the bigger downsides to the NBA season being suspended back in mid-March was that most of the players were already well-conditioned and gearing up for a playoff run. With the abrupt stoppage of the season, it’s not surprising that many players lost a little bit of that conditioning that comes with playing NBA-level basketball on a daily basis.
As a player, you can only do so much to keep your conditioning at an optimum level when you don’t have access to your team’s facilities or the ability to play at game-speed conditions. With practices starting back up for the Lakers and scrimmages set to start on July 23rd, it’ll be interesting to see how the team looks from a physical standpoint.
Obviously a star player like LeBron James, who has all the resources to keep himself in amazing shape shouldn’t have too much trouble getting his body back up to speed, but the same can’t be said for other members of the team.
Luckily, every other team in the bubble is facing the same issue of a lack of conditioning, so that means everyone is starting the season off on equal footing. Between the team practices, scrimmages, and eight regular-season games, we should expect this Lakers team to be in great shape from both a physical and mental standpoint heading into the post-season.
Regardless, it’s going to be interesting to see who the most out of shape players are when we first tune in to the scrimmages.