After an early exit in the 2021 NBA Playoffs, the Lakers are making splashes around LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The Lakers went after all-star point guard Russell Westbrook. The Lakers paid a steep price but it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. The Lakers traded the Washington Wizards Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Montrezl Harrell and the 22nd pick of the NBA Draft for Westbrook, a 2024 second rounder and 2028 second rounder.
Once Westbrook was added, the Lakers went looking for experience and signed Dwight Howard, Trevor Ariza, Wayne Ellington, Kent Basemore, Carmelo Anthony, Kendrick Nunn and Malik Monk to the squad. This is quite a different team than last season but there’s some interesting lineups that can be played and lots of high basketball IQ on this team.
The Lakers also re-signed Talen Horton-Tucker to a three-year deal. He’ll be one of the younger players on the squad. It’s also been talked about the Lakers adding other players like J.J. Redick to give them more shooting ability. Let’s face it, Westbrook and James are not great shooters. They like to penetrate and make plays for others or themselves around the rim.
On the other hand, defensively, the Lakers lost their top defenders in Caruso and Caldwell-Pope but the additions of Ariza, Nunn, and Monk should help fill that void. All three of those guys have higher defensive ratings than Caruso and Caldwell-Pope and that will help the Lakers find an identity. It might take time for this team to gel with each other but the Lakers made sure to sign all of their players and make all of their moves fast enough to where everyone could start talking basketball with each other instantly.
There’s only going to be four players remaining from last year’s roster. Instead, they’ve added a bunch of really good players who have never won a title before. Those guys, like Anthony and Westbrook, have a chip on their shoulder and want to win a championship. What I’m trying to say is that this team is going to be hungry to win. They’re going to be
as deep as ever before and have plenty of talent to go around. Last year, this team didn’t have many shooters. The defense was what helped keep them in games on bad shooting nights. Adding Wayne Ellington and other shooters to this team is going to be really helpful. With all of the penetration that the Lakers stars can bring to the table, those shooters are going to have so many chances to hit open shots from the corner. Oddsmakers didn’t really nudge off these Lakers moves.
WynnBet, for example, had the Lakers at +400 to win the Championship before all of these moves. They’ve now been dropped to +375, which is basically a very minor move. The Nets are still the frontrunner to win the title at +225 but the Lakers are inching closer with those odds. The question is whether all the star power will actually equal wins.
There’s no doubt that the Lakers have all the big names and top athletes. But they’re aging and might not be able to keep up with the younger teams like the Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz. But we can honestly say that the Lakers are deep. On the floor, they’ll have a legitimate star on the floor in every position. The 10th, 11th, and 12th players on this team will be Trevor Ariza, Marc Gasol, and Talen Horton-Tucker.
That’s a really deep team despite age. Even if there’s an injury on this roster for a long period of time, this year, the Lakers can likely overcome any of that with their roster. That’s something they didn’t have before. So yes, the Lakers will be playing in Western Conference Finals and have a chance at making the Championship and winning it all. If you’re counting out LeBron James, you’ve been living under a rock.