Los Angeles Lakers: Why adding J.R. Smith, Dion Waiters will lead to an NBA Title

The Los Angeles Lakers have made some roster changes that will still lead to an NBA Championship.

The NBA season has finally arrived! We saw a red-hot Los Angeles Lakers team get put to a halt due to the Covid-19 shutdown.

As the regular season restart is upon us, the Lakers still remain the favorites to win it all, currently listed at +250 on Draftkings Sportsbook. This is all despite having a new look roster with some familiar faces.

Tonight we will see multiple different lineup combinations being experimented, and we should have a pretty good idea of what the rotation will look like very soon. While the Lakers miss the great on-ball defending of Avery Bradley, J.R. Smith and Dion Waiters are veterans that won’t be afraid of the spotlight.

Setting aside Smith’s misclick in Game 1 of 2018’s NBA Finals for just a moment, he has been a huge veteran presence in the playoffs, with lights out shooting in games with everything on the line. Having a guy like Smith over Bradley is something that can possibly benefit the Lakers when the playoffs roll around.

Come playoff time we will see lots of one on one isolation basketball, having a quick trigger knockdown shooter like J.R. spotting up compared to an Avery Bradley is a huge difference as we just recently saw Smith drill six three-pointers against the Wizards.

J.R. is someone that’s not afraid to take big shots in high-pressure situations and many of his performances are overlooked. This is a guy that’s shooting a career 37% from downtown in the playoffs and is in the top 10 for most 3 pointers made in the Playoffs, while also having the 13th most made threes in NBA history.

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Dion Waiters is also a veteran guard who can run the 2nd unit while Rondo is rehabbing, and given that Waiters can also shoot from distance shooting at a career 35% from the 3 point line, he will be able to spread the floor a lot better than Rondo can.

Both Waiters and Smith have spent a lot of time over their careers playing alongside LeBron James. Both Waiters and Smith are elite shooters and the teammate chemistry should still remain intact after all these years.

The true key factor in delivering a ring to the king will be Anthony Davis. Being able to use Davis by forcing double teams and creating miss matches with shooters around the perimeter will be a vital component in the flow of the offense.

The reunion of Smith and James is something many people would always joke of and now it is a reality, and a shot at redemption for Smith. If they pull this off it would be a storybook ending for many on the Los Angeles Lakers roster.

Dwight Howard winning his first ring, while taking place in Orlando. J.R. Smith riding off into the sunset after the playoff mishap just a few short years ago. Davis getting his first ring he always dreamed of, and lastly LeBron James doing it for his dear friend Kobe Bryant and winning it all in his honor.

Having two of the top five players in the NBA with surrounding veterans will simply outmatch opponents and lead to a dominant playoff run ending in LeBron James hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy. Without a doubt we will definitely have a magical ending in Disney World.