The Lakers are the clear favorites to win the West and everything worse
than another NBA final for them will be considered as a failure. These
expectations are curious, as one year ago, a lot of people were
doubting that they could even reach the Playoffs and that Kobe was more
interested in leaving the Lakers than staying in LA.
Everything changed with the breakout season of Andrew Bynum, who
last season basically doubled his numbers. He averaged 13.1 ppg and
10.2 rpg, for 63.6% FG! His physical presence on the paint caused a lot
of damages on his opponents and a lot of people say that with Bynum on
the field, the Lakers would have beaten the Celtics last season in the
finals, but that's another story. It's important to refer that Bynum is
now fully recovered and that may be the key of the Lakers' success this
season.
Pau Gasol was the key of the Lakers last season after Bynum's
injury and the Lakers can thank the Memphis staff, who made sure the
Lakers will stay competitive on the next few seasons. With Gasol, the
Lakers went 22-5 on the regular season and he entered very well on the
team, with 18.8 ppg and 58.9% FG, however a lot of people accused Gasol
of being soft on the finals against the Celtics. I think Gasol isn't
the most aggressive player on the league, but I think the people were
too harsh on him, as the Celtics had a more powerful frontcourt than
the Lakers and Gasol alone couldn't do anything, in order to stop the
Celtics on the paint.
Kobe Bryant finally won the MVP award last season and he earned it,
for being able to focus after such a story between him, the Lakers and
the Bulls. He ended the season with 28.3 ppg, 6.3 rpg and 5.4 apg, for
45.9% FG. Naturally, it is expected that Kobe will remain was the
franchise player of the team, but his big task for this season will be
to make the team be globally better, something he has managed to do
last season. Also we know that when the Lakers are involved in a
ballgame with just a few seconds remaining on the clock, we know who's
gonna take the responsibility: Kobe Bryant.
With Bynum's return, the Lakers have now one of the most powerful
frontcourts of the league and at the same time, one of the tallest too:
Bynum is 7'1, Gasol is 7'0 and Odom is 6'10. Naturally, the team will
improve in the rebound department and it will be very hard to stop them
on the paint, but not everything is positive, as if they win in height,
they also lose in speediness and mobility and the opponents may take
advantage of that factor.
However, the main problem for Phil Jackson will be the chemistry
the team will have or not, with these three players on the field at the
same time. There are rumors that Odom will be the team's 6th man, but
he's not happy at all with that. If he is used in the SF position, we
can say it's his original position, but he hasn't played on that
position on the past few seasons and we don't know if he will be able
to adapt to that position once again. He is not a good player on the
perimeter and with Gasol and Bynum getting the attention on their
opponents, the Lakers will need good exterior shooters and Odom isn't
that type of player.
All the remaining roster is the same from last season, which will
be positive, as there weren't many changes. The bench of the Lakers
were the 7th best last season with 32.3 ppg, even though some players
didn't play well at all in the finals, like Walton or Radmanovic.
The expectations for the Lakers this season are huge and they will
be the team everybody will want to beat in the West. The team has all
the conditions to make another run into the NBA finals and Kobe Bryant
will have to show what he hasn't been able to show on his entire
career: be able to be the decisive player on the finals. He was out
shadowed by O'Neal on his first three finals and last season, the
Celtics didn't have problems in stopping him.
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