A huge part of basketball is confidence in one’s ability. If a player is confident, they will generally play their game, and not worry about the repercussions. We’ve also seen shooters lose confidence many times in the past, affecting their performance on the court.
Russell Westbrook has recently stated that he wants the Los Angeles Lakers to play with “swag” no matter whether they win or lose a given game. Russell Westbrook is known to be a confident player who is unafraid to try and make plays for himself or others at any given moment. His confidence and swagger has allowed him to play at a high level for many years, and perhaps if the Los Angeles Lakers were to adopt his mentality, they could become a better team.
https://twitter.com/hmfaigen/status/1454321433279021059
That’s something that I’m big on, just keeping our swagger up.
There are a lot of reasons for the Los Angeles Lakers to be confident in themselves. They have a lot of star power with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook on the roster. They also have quality veterans such as Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony, and DeAndre Jordan. There’s no question that they will be a great team when they figure it all out, and as long as they remain confident in the championship vision that they had at the start of the season, they will likely perform very well in the regular season.
After the Lakers’ slow start, LeBron James stated that they “had no choice but to get better”. The Lakers are back at .500 after beating the Cleveland Cavaliers, and they have a somewhat easy slate of games coming up, facing some rebuilding teams such as the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Houston Rockets as their next few matchups. Hopefully, we see them play with that “swagger” that Westbrook described, and rattle off some convincing wins.
