After losing in the first round against Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns, the Los Angeles Lakers quickly realized that changes must be made to the team for them to compete once again. During this offseason, they have acquired many talented players. Among them were some solid veteran shooters such as Wayne Ellington, as well as some former All-Stars in Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard. The biggest move though was acquiring Russell Westbrook from the Washington Wizards via trade.
While the Los Angeles Lakers may have stacked a lot of talent on the roster, the next part will be how it all comes together. While stacking talent to create superteams generally increases the chances of winning, we’ve seen many talented superteams fail due to the lack of chemistry on the roster.
Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy has recently spoken to SiriusXM NBA Radio, and suggested that while the Lakers are good on paper, they still have some work to do in terms of building that chemistry on the court.
"Paper doesn't win championships for us."#Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy (@94feetofgame) tells @Jumpshot8 & @DarthAmin what we can expect from this year's Lakers team. #LakeShow pic.twitter.com/zsdfjPZi9m
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) August 22, 2021
Paper doesn’t win championships for us. Those names that are on that paper, are some phenomenal names… We gotta do our work and make sure we gel. Do we fit? These guys, they gotta figure out ways to play with each other and sacrifice, and let their names take over. You know, you look at that piece of paper and say, Lakers are loaded, automatic championship. Nah man, we got a lot of work to do in terms of just gelling, finding our rhythm and being able to be cohesive as a unit.
There’s no question that the Los Angeles Lakers will face the challenge of playing with a whole new roster, and sometimes talent doesn’t mesh as well as you want it to. Hopefully, though, they are able to build chemistry during the regular season and be ready for the playoffs.
