The Los Angeles Lakers will be hoping for a bit of a resurgence in the coming season. The last three years have each seen LAL set the new franchise low in wins culminating in a 17-win disaster last year.
This summer the Lakers added another heralded rookie in Brandon Ingram. They fired head coach Byron Scott and replaced him with former Warriors assistant Luke Walton. They also added Timofey Mozgov and Luol Deng in free agency. While being anywhere near the playoffs should not be expected, marked improvements should be.
No matter how much they can improve next year, however, there is one former Lakers legend who does not think they’re anywhere close to contending.
Ahead of being inducted into the Hall of Fame, Shaquille O’Neal was asked about the team he once won three championships with. Shaq was (as usual) candid in his response (via Bill Oram of The Orange County Register):
“They’re definitely going to be exciting,” O’Neal said Thursday, “but I don’t see them being a contender for a while. I mean, they’ve still got to go up against Golden State in the West, they’ve got to go up against OKC, still got to go up against Cleveland, the Rockets. So they have a long way to go to be a contender.
“Every now and then they’ll make some noise and get the people in the Staples Center excited.”
Shaq is clearly correct. Although the Lakers have plenty of young talent on their team, they are far away from contending. All of those young players need time to develop and Walton needs time to gain experience as a head coach.
But as O’Neal points out, the Lakers can be exciting next season. D’Angelo Russell and Brandon Ingram bring hope to a franchise that has been reeling since 2013. Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle, Larry Nance, Jr., and Ivica Zubac are all icing on that cake.
Regardless, this group of young players has a lot of work to do to bring the same amount of success Shaq once did in the Purple and Gold.
