Magic Joins First Take To Discuss Lakers Upcoming Season
There are high hopes in Laker land this season to return to their past glory.
No one knows that better than Los Angeles Lakers’ president of basketball operations Magic Johnson.
Ahead of the LeBron James’ highly anticipated Los Angeles Lakers, Magic Johnson spoke ESPN’s First Take on Thursday about his expectations for the 2018 NBA season.
The Los Angeles Laker great believes that the Los Angeles Lakers will have a strong regular-season that culminates in Los Angeles making the postseason.
“Rob (Pelinka) and I actually built this team really for the playoffs. This a playoff team,” Johnson said on the show. “I think that when we get to the playoffs we’re gonna be a tough team to beat.”
In addition to the huge signing of LeBron James this past offseason, the Los Angeles Lakers went out and signed notable free agents such as Rajon Rondo, JaVale McGee, Lance Stephenson and Michael Beasley.
The Los Angeles Lakers enter this season with the third best odds to win the Western Conference, but the absence of a legitimate, ready-made star next to LeBron James have people questioning those odds.
Johnson when speaking on that topic said that when it comes to a player emerging to take the load of LeBron James’ shoulders, he expects that player to be Brandon Ingram.
“It’s gotta be Brandon Ingram because every year he’s taken a step forward. He’s gotten better and better,” Johnson said on the show. “He has the game to score 20 points a night. We’ve seen signs of that. So if Brandon can take the step that we all feel that he can take I feel that will make us a dangerous team.”
The third year forward bounced back from a subpar rookie campaign during the 2016-17 season to average 16.1 PPG, 5.3 RPG, and 3.9 APG.
Ingram, 21, scored 20 or more points in 15 of his 59 games last season as he finished tied for the team lead in points per game with fellow Lakers’ forward Kyle Kuzma.
Looking for improvement from his 2017 first round pick, Magic Johnson is hoping to see Lonzo Ball up his level of aggressiveness as a scorer.
“He has to learn how to attack the paint and get his floaters and then take it all the way to the rim,” Johnson said. “He loves to pass first and that’s fine we want him to stick with that.
“But a lot of times the defense is baiting him now, ‘go ahead and drive the lane we know you’re gonna kick it out’, so they don’t really play him. So he’s gotta take it all the way.
“He’s gotta be able to score and once he’s able to score he can do everything else. He plays defense. He’s one of the best rebounding guards in the league and he knows how to get his teammates great shots. So we want him to keep the pace going because we want to run, run and run (on offense).”
The Los Angeles Lakers looked to sign free agent forward Paul George this past offseason in addition to LeBron James, but when George elected to re-sign with Oklahoma City, the attention shifted to the 2019 free agent class that includes trade target Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Jimmy Butler.
The Los Angeles Lakers will have enough cap space to offer any of those players a max contract. For now, Magic Johnson wants to stay in the now, which is a team looking to start something special for one of the NBA’s glamour franchises.
“We’re focused on this season. We feel we’re gonna have a really good season. And then we know next season we’re gonna have cap space for another player. We’ll concentrate only on this season and then we’ll wait and see what happens and what type of player we need to bring in.”
The Los Angeles Lakers open their 2018 season Thursday night on the road vs the Portland Trail Blazers.
What are your expectations for the Los Angeles Lakers this season? Leave your comments below!