Los Angeles Lakers are now the team to beat in the NBA – NBA feature
The Los Angeles Lakers remain one of the best teams in the NBA because of their commitment to winning, nourishing a championship culture and the success of their front office in getting the right players at the right time to make
the team complete. It helps that they are a big market team and have more money to throw around than some of the other clubs, but their shrewdness and competence in making championship teams cannot be denied.
The Lakers had the best summer of their franchise in 1996 when they acquired Shaquille O’Neal and drafted Kobe Bryant. Together, they won three NBA championships. Then, Shaq left and the Lakers became irrelevant for a while. But
they do not like to be irrelevant and went ahead and acquired Pau Gasol in 2008. The combination of Gasol and Bryant led them to three NBA Finals and back to back championship rings. And it looks as if they Lakers are headed in that direction once again.
The Lakers just added Dwight Howard to an already star studded roster that has essentially made them the best NBA team in the league at the moment. At least on paper, there is no other team in the NBA at this point of time that
can boast the raw talent and skills that the Lakers have now gathered in Los Angeles.
We thought the Brooklyn Nets had a great summer. But the Lakers outdid everyone when they not only acquired one of the best point guards to ever play the game in Steve Nash, but they also went ahead and landed the most dominant
centre in the league at the moment. The Lakers starting line-up will boast Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Metta World Peace and Dwight Howard next season when they take the floor, and people are already considering them as NBA champions for the next season.
The big three of the Miami Heat that were assembled in 2010 seem incomparable to the Lakers now, and they are certainly going to have their work cut out if they want to accomplish their dreams of multiple championships.
There will be many analysts, team owners and fans who will call this latest move by the Lakers as having ended all levels of competition in the NBA, and a cheap way of securing championships. But the reality is that this is the
Lakers team for next season and this is very well the team to beat. One feels for the Oklahoma City Thunder, who went through such a tiresome and effortful rebuilding process and had just reached the point where they were genuine contenders for the NBA crown.
Now they have to defeat the mighty Lakers if they want to reach the NBA Finals next season.
The Lakers are by no means unbeatable and there is no guarantee that they will win the championship next season, as a lot still needs to be proven. Firstly, three people who are used to having the offense run around them will play
for the same team next season and it is unclear as to how they will adjust to their new role. Secondly, Phil Jackson had a tough time managing two strong headed players in his roster in O’Neal and Bryant when he was head coach of the Lakers. And that was Phil
Jackson, one of the most decorated coaches in NBA history the man who coached Michael Jordan to six NBA championships.
The present coach of the Lakers, Mike Brown, is not Phil Jackson. Not even near him. Not even in the same conversation. And he needs to figure out how to play his cards with four NBA superstars, while also maintaining a healthy
relationship with all four of them and keeping the locker room united. Brown has a tough task ahead of him next season to say the least.
We all know that off-seasons make championship contenders, but they do not make Champions. And the Lakers are a long way from capturing NBA crown one more time. But they are definitely the team to beat at the moment.
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