The Los Angeles Lakers begin their journey in search of the 18 championship this Tuesday. The first of the 82 games will be at home, at the Staples Center, against the Warriors of Stephen Curry, one of the six teams that beat the Angelenos in the preseason. The Lakers lost all six warm-up games, recording the worst preseason since 2012. Still, LeBron James’ team, who turns 37 in December, is one of the most interesting experiments to follow in the NBA to begin. It has been reinforced almost exclusively with veterans, becoming the oldest squad in the league. The year will test if the experience is enough to get the title.
“It will take us a minute to become the team that we know we are capable of becoming,” James said after losing the fifth straight game, against Golden State, 111-99. The alarms have not gone off. The preseason is a stage of experimentation and to clear up some of the many unknowns that surround the team, which has welcomed Rusell Westbrook, an explosive recruitment that also raises doubts about the role that the base will have in a team where the reflectors are monopolized by the protagonist of Space Jam and Anthony Davis.
Westbrook, 32, is originally from Los Angeles, where he studied at the University of California. His wife and children live in the city. This season is, in his words, “a great circle that is closing.” He grew up watching the Lakers of Kobe Bryant, a player he idolized and later counted among his friends. The point guard led the league in assists last year with an average of 11.7 per game. He also averaged 22.2 points and 11.5 rebounds, consolidating his dominance in triple-doubles (achieving double-digit figures in points, rebounds and assists).
The point guard, who comes from the Washington Wizards, has spent his first hours in the Lakers jersey answering questions from reporters who question what the player, known for his love of having control of the ball, plans to do. “I have come to a team that has championship caliber and my job is to make sure to make the game easier for LeBron,” explained Westbrook, who has ensured that it will impact the Lakers game without the need to have the ball in the hands.
Alberto de Roa, an NBA analyst, believes that the arrival of Westbrook aims to “take pressure off LeBron” in the scheme of coach Frank Vogel. “Westbrook is an alpha male in the teams where he is and is not afraid to control the game,” says the expert. De Roa believes that many of the reinforcements that have arrived, Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo, Carmelo Anthony, DeAndre Jordan, will have as their main task to shelter the stars. “We already know what the stars can give us when they are healthy. We do not know the secondary ones. There are no differential players, “he says. “One more passer will also be missed, there are no players to distribute,” he adds. Marc Gasol could have helped the task, but he was traded back to the Grizzlies after a season in which he didn’t see the action he wanted.
Only eight teams in the NBA have had an average age of more than 31 years since 1951. The Lakers are one of them. At 31, they are nearly four years older than the league average and surpass the Heat (28.8) and the Brooklyn Nets (28), who start as one of the favorites in the East. LeBron James, however, is used to winning with teams full of veterans. He did it in 2013 in Miami when he was 28 in a 31.2-year-old squad. He repeated it in Cleveland in 2016 (29.5 years) and two years ago in the Lakers in the bubble. If he were to win the MVP award after this season there would only be one MVP winner older than him, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, winner in 1985 at age 38.
Only three players remain from last year’s lineup: James, Anthony Davis and Talen Horton-Tucker. Of the top 13 players, nine are 32 or older. The youngest are injured. Malik Monk, 23, a former Charlotte player, has a groin problem. Horton-Tucker, 21, suffers from a torn ligament in a thumb that will need surgery.
Each season start speculates whether it will be the beginning of the end for James, who has won four titles. King James, as they call him, has no ears for this debate. On Thursday, in the last preseason game against the Kings, he scored 30 points in 28 minutes. Decline is inevitable, but delayed for the league’s monarch. Last year, however, he posted a disturbing 18-year milestone in the NBA: he lost for the first time in the first round of the playoffs, ante Phoenix.
James will play for the first time with one of his great friends, Carmelo Anthony. Melo will arrive with the Lakers at age 38 and at 1,200 NBA games. He will not do it as a starter, something that he already seems to have digested. “This team is like the US Olympic team to me. There is a lot of talent and you have to discover what works and what doesn’t. How to work together. At this point, let’s do whatever needs to be done, ”he said recently. His point average is far from his best days, but last year with Portland he managed to make 42% of long range shots, a stat the team needs after the organization got rid of shooters like Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell. -Pope, who were sent to Washington along with Montrezl Harrell and the 22nd national team draft in exchange for Westbrook.
Injuries caused the powerful player to lose 27 games in 2019 and 2021. That will be the main obstacle for the veteran Lakers in their fight for the title against teams like the defending champs, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Nets favorites. Anthony Davis, another of the team’s stars, missed 36 of 72 games last year. Right calf discomfort prevented him from playing in 30 games, resulting in his second worst season in points and the fewest rebounds in his nine years in the league. Westbrook’s arrival also changes his position from power forward to power forward. “We are going to have to be patient with the process and understand that we will have frustrating moments,” LeBron said recently, hinting that the chemistry will come. It remains to be seen if he doesn’t do it too late.
You can follow EL PAÍS DEPORTES in Facebook and Twitter, or sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.