3 keys to success for the Lakers this season
The Los Angeles Lakers enter this season with a championship-or-bust mindset. LeBron James is entering his 21st season and it is unclear how much longer can maintain his level of play. The Lakers need him to be great if they want to win.
The Lakers made so many great moves this offseason that they have put themselves in a great position to win it all. They brought back a lot of their key pieces from last year on long-term deals and added some solid new contributors.
In order to win a championship a lot of things have to go right. You have to have a good regular season, stay healthy, run into the right opponents to win one. Here are three keys the Lakers need to have a successful season.
Lakers keys to success: 3. Defense
One of the biggest cliches in sports is "Defense wins championships.'' For the most part, this is true in a lot of sports because as long as someone's opponent scores less than them, they win the game. Most championship teams in the NBA have great defenses.
For the majority of last season the Lakers had struggled defensively. Anthony Davis was in and out of the lineup and no one else on that team could really play defense. Then the trade deadline happened, they got some great defenders and the Lakers would go on to have a top three defense to close out the season.
When the Lakers matched up against the Nuggets, they couldn't stop Jamal Murray out on the permieter and struggled with guarding Nikola Jokic in the post. Jokic is a tough guard because he can do so many thnigs on offense.
The Lakers answered this problem by getting Gabe Vincent, Tauren Prince, Cam Reddish, and re-signing Jared Vanderbilt. They are all great perimeter defenders which is a huge plus for the Lakers. D'Angelo Russell had struggled defensively in the Western Conference Final and took that to heart and worked on his defense.
To pair with all of the great defensive role players the Lakers have, they have a Defensive Player of the Year candidate in Davis. The defensive tenacity starts and ends with him. When he sets a defensive presence on the court, everyone else will follow.
The Lakers have the potential to be the best defensive team in basketball. This is extremely scary because their offense is clicking really well together and their defensive potential can make them dominant.