Granted with football season it's hard to keep up with the Lakers as much as I typically do, but make no mistake I still check in every day to see what's going on and boy I cannot tell you how excited I am. Lakers basketball officially gets under way in a week. A new era of Lakers basketball is set to begin. Everyone knows the Lakers have a tremendous young group of players and this could very well be the start of something very special with the Lakers. I believe the Lakers are on their way back up. I think they've done an excellent job drafting. They've signed some good role players in free agency. They hired a good, young coach and he's assembled a quality staff. Russell has looked fantastic for the most in pre-season and looks to have a really, good second season in the NBA. Ingram isn't ready to be an impact player, but you can already see he has a chance to be special in a few years. Has the potential to be a great two way player in the coming seasons. Randle, Nance, and JC at worst are good, quality players in this league that can be solid rotation players even if they aren't necessarily starters in the NBA. It's an infusion of youth and there will certainly there will be quite the learning curve not for the players, for coaches, and us as fans will have to learn to be patient because there will be a lot of frustration with their inability to consistently perform because they're all puppies in the league and are a long way away from being full grown dogs. It's been a long time since I've felt excited to watch Lakers basketball. I feel that way now. I'm excited to see the growth of this team on both sides of the ball. Seeing them actually look somewhat in tune defensively at some point hopefully this season. Seeing some actual crisp and precise ball movement along with executing sets from this offense. Seeing this team learn how to play together and most importantly having fun. Having a coach like Luke who you know is itching for the season to start and officially start his career as the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. He knows as much as anyone what being a Laker is all about, but he also knows this team is a long way from sniffing what the great teams of the past have done. This will be a long, long process and he has a huge challenge in front of him getting a very young, but very talented group of players and really teaching them how to play the game the way it's supposed to be played with unselfishness, playing smart and sound basketball, and using their talents and skills and being able to form them with the rest of the players and being able to properly utilize them. I look forward to seeing this team get out in transition, running screen and rolls, seeing D'Angelo hit some game winners, seeing Randle run a proper break, Clarkson catching alley oops from Russell and others, Ingram using his length to cause some issues on the defensive end and eventually being able to set his feet and hit open shots, Nance using his athleticism on both ends of the court, seeing this team run their actions and get quality looks out of it and resulting in a smooth running offense. Obviously it'll take some time to get to that point, but it's gonna be fun to see them get there. I've said I think Russell and Ingram are the two guys who have the highest chance to become great players in the NBA, but I truly don't know and I don't think anyone does. For all we know it could be one of the other guys or maybe none of them. They could all just be really solid players and none of them turning out to be franchise type players. That's as much a possibility as any. Still you build your team, develop your youth and even if they're just solid players you still have a much better product and in a market like this you give yourselves this team an opportunity to get that superstar eventually either in free agency or in a big splash trade. Just one more week fellas. Gonna be a long journey, but look forward to seeing this basketball team actually look like a basketball team. Look forward to seeing the Lakers come to San Antonio and watching them in person and hopefully catch one at the Staples Center. I don't know exactly what the record will be, but either way I think we look back as the start of something really special. Let's Go Lakers! :Headbang::MozgovYell:
