Lakers News: ESPN Pundit Believes LA Will Return To Finals In 2024
The Los Angeles Lakers face an uphill battle for their championship aspirations in a tight Western Conference for the 2024 season.
Every pundit seems to talk about the Nuggets, Suns or Clippers as teams above LA except one Jorge Sedano who believes another title could be coming to Crypto.com Arena next June.
Lakers GM Rob Pelinka fortified the team's depth at the trade deadline by shipping out Russell Westbrook for key pieces of the team's 2023 playoff roster.
D'Angelo Russell, Rui Hachimura and Jared Vanderbilt return as those key additions as the team also retained Austin Reaves after some rumors of his exit surfaced but never materialized.
As for players who were on different teams last season, Pelinka wasn't shy to dip into that well either.
LA lost Dennis Schroder and Lonnie Walker IV to Toronto and Brooklyn respectively but gained former Miami Heat guard Gabe Vincent to shore up their backcourt.
Cam Reddish brings some wing athleticism and potential in the frontcourt as the former 10th overall Duke product hopes to latch onto LA's rotation.
Max Christie's impressive preseason has all but guaranteed him a spot as the Lakers' fourth guard for the regular season.
Taurean Prince was a vital piece to Minnesota's bench rotation in recent seasons and now fights for a starting frontcourt role alongside Lebron James and Anthony Davis.
Jaxson Hayes' athleticism already seems to be an upgrade over Wenyan Gabriel and Christian Wood's scoring punch will be valuable to LA's big-man rotation this season.
Coach Darvin Ham has all the pieces for a great postseason run like he had last season where the team fell short against the Nuggets.
The revenge tour starts in just a few weeks as the Lakers hit the road to face Denver on their ring night in what should be a great grudge match to start the year.
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