Former LeBron James coach David Fizdale has claimed the Los Angeles Lakers will get the biggest benefit from the NBA’s short turnaround. The league recently agreed to a 72-game calendar for the upcoming season and not everybody is happy with that. The Lakers are an old team and this short period of rest could be counterproductive for them. However, not everybody around the league thinks that way, especially Fizdale.
The former Miami Heat assistant coach joined ESPN’s The Jump to discuss several topics, including this shortened NBA calendar and how it will affect the teams. While some have seven months without hitting the court, others just finished playing last month, so it’ll be a complex situation for everybody. Fizdale explained that the Lakers players will benefit from this short turnaround (1:11 mark).
“I think LeBron and AD gather the team and say ‘listen, you can’t really party anyway, as much as we love being the champs, the season’s gonna start right away, let’s stay in great shape. Let’s everybody take care of our bodies and let’s come back into the season and see if we can get another title.’ To me, this is a great settle for LeBron, ’cause you know, the older he gets, there is a quicker way to fall off. This start right away gets him right back into it and I’m sure he’s in great shape. I just don’t know if these other guys over celebrated but I think this really benefits the Lakers.”
Well, this will be a challenging season for the Lakers, since they just won the championship back in October and the load was heavy for them. Bron will be 36 a couple of days after the league starts and there is no guarantee that he will be the same he was during the bubble. Yes, LeBron is not from this world but not even he can beat father time. The Lakers can put together a well-rounded team to help Bron and Anthony Davis can take care of business for the first half of the season, but it’s not clear that the Lakers will actually return on the same page they left the bubble.
Only time will tell but for Fizdale, they will get the most advantage of this situation.
