The Los Angeles Lakers currently stand at 10th place in the Western Conference with a 9-15 record. All the talk in Los Angeles has been about rookie Lonzo Ball. He has been exceptional in regards to his rebounding and passing with 6.9 rebounds and seven assists but has failed to find a consistent scoring ability. He’s averaging a mere 8.8 points per game on 31% shooting.
Laker great and future hall of famer Kobe Bryant appeared on Spectrum SportsNet to discuss the Lakers’ core group of young players that consists of Lonzo Ball, Julius Randle and Kyle Kuzma. He said that this core needs to become better now in order to see any sort of success in the future.
Bryant also noted that the developing process will take a while. He compared this Lakers team to the ones of his day when he and Shaq first arrived in LA.
“Even when Shaq and I first came here, there was still patience. Shaq still had to grow up, he was extremely young. I still had to grow up. We had a lot of the pieces around that had to grow up. Now, it seemed like it was easier then, because it seemed like we were a contender right off the bat. Nick Van Exel, Eddie Jones and Shaq. But that wasn’t the reality. It took us years to get there.”
The first half of the NBA season has not even arrived yet so there is plenty of room for Ball to develop in different aspects of his game. If he cleans up his shooting woes along with an improved jump shot, the Lakers will have a decent shot at making a playoff run.