Dare to Dream.. Lots of ifs... but if Roy has a return to is all-star self, the young guns come through (Clarkson, Russell, Randle, Black and Crew).. Williams and Young compete for sixth man of the year. Bass will be solid. Two I'm dying to see are how well Huertas blends into the NBA and what version of Kobe are we getting. If even most of these ifs pan out we are going to be much better than most think. Soft early schedule lets us get off to a great start, build up some confidence, we are off to the races or dare I say playoffs.
I think the soft schedule will definitely help things along. I think this team is due to really surprise some people given the rock bottom expectations this year. I mean just because you don't make the playoffs in the west doesn't mean you stink. The west is just really good. So if we somehow get up to 35-45 wins (which I'm starting to think is a possibility) and still miss the playoffs, the next season is still a huge success in my book.
For every person that has had anything to do with the genius of the new custom LB Lakers smilies ...... :heart::sashafire::Beertoast::wow:
Training camp is so close, starting to feel like Laker basketball time again. Monday/Tuesday can't come soon enough. And that first preseason game, I think I'll go to sleep now, wake me up for tipoff.
I've had trouble sleeping this past week because I'm excited and while in bed I just think about the possibilities too much haha. Happens every year.
OK someone give me some big man love for good Mitch moves to have Hibbert now and Upshaw as well to go up against Rudy Gobert on the Jazz tonight. Been hearing his name tons but not really familiar with his game. An epic "tank" with your own team did that for me last year, didn't much care about other teams' players and was only focussed on keeping our pick last year. I was surprised to see him now listed as 7'2". If Roy responds, still in his prime age range now with one of or the best year he's ever had.... even.... it should be a good thing we have a skilled 7'2" big man of our own to play this guy right? How do they stack up where it counts .... defense, rebounds, offense, skills? And what of our own young 7' potential "steal" in this year's draft .... Upshaw .... how does the tale of the tape with strengths, skills, physical dimensions and weaknesses between those 2 look?
If I can take any positives from this game, it's that if there's any unwarranted cockiness with our young guys, hopefully this slaps it off their faces. That and I liked Hibbert's D, Russell made a sweet pass, and a nice cut for a layup. Oh and hopefully it's one day closer to Sacre being cut.
Yeah we lost, but I saw a lot potential tonight. I really like the young core we have, and once people learn to rotate to cover Hibbert helping them, watch out for this team defensively. Lou was a great pickup and I like that we have have Lou and Young off the bench for instant offense. Russell showed a few of those passes we knew he could throw and looked pretty good for a 19yo player in his first NBA preseason game defensively. Clarkson is going to be a beast in a few years, and we will see him get better and better. Black is already a solid backup. Randal just needs to settle down and let the game come to him and read what the defense is giving him and that will come in time. It's the first year together. I've watched enough basketball to know the signs are all there. These guys will be a really good team eventually, if not this year, then next I guarantee it
I liked what I saw from our defense today except towards the end we ran out of gas Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk
