Lakers News: Insider Ranks LA Among Top Title Contenders This Season
Your Los Angeles Lakers had quite the year in 2022-23. Saddled with way too many over-the-hill inefficient veteran point guards, they kicked off their season with a miserable 2-10 start, and looked lottery-bound before offloading Russell Westbrook, Patrick Beverley, and Kendrick Nunn (as well as sacrificing Thomas Bryant, who was perfectly fine as a Laker) to trade for several players who addressed their shooting and size issues. This new-look LA squad went 18-8 to close out the regular season and help the club finish with a semi-respectable 43-39 record and the West' seventh seed.
Los Angeles then outperformed its standing heading into the postseason, winning its play-in game against the Minnesota Timberwolves (yes it took an overtime period to do it, but nevertheless the deed was done) and then beating higher seeds in the first and second round of the playoffs. The team was then swept by the eventual NBA champion Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals.
Now, after re-signing key pieces Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and D'Angelo Russell (the latter of whom honestly feels more like a trade chip than a 2024 postseason Laker), extending frontcourt mainstays Anthony Davis and Jarred Vanderbilt, and signing the likes of Gabe Vincent, Taurean Prince, Christian Wood, Cam Reddish and Jaxson Hayes, LA is looking to go even further in the playoffs this coming spring.
During a new conversation with Rashad Milligan of Rolling Out, Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson highlighted the Lakers' reconfigured personnel when citing the team as one of his most anticipated clubs to watch this year.
"It would be easy to say the [Los Angeles] Lakers definitely did their thing," Robinson said. "We know that, but I think what gets lost in translation in this aspect is the real teams that are contending. There are really about four or five teams, in my mind, the Lakers being one of them."
Robinson has just launched an exciting new YouTube interview program, Classics With Scoop B, where he talks to leading lights in the worlds of athletics, entertainment and business. Give it a listen posthaste!
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