No one is picking the Los Angeles Lakers to win the NBA championship this coming season, which makes total sense. But plenty of national pundits feel the Lakers will drop into the play-in tournament range and possibly even miss the playoffs after losing LeBron James and a number of other starters and key rotation players this summer.
The team has added new starters and rotation players, including Walker Kessler, Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton and Sandro Mamukelashvili. But in the minds of those pundits, many of these additions are unproven and lackluster replacements for the players who departed.
Grimes, however, said during an appearance on the “Mason & Ireland Show” on 710 AM ESPN L.A. radio that the squad will surprise people, and he outlined why that will happen.
“AR (Austin Reaves) had a fantastic season last year, well-deserving of the contract he got and everything,” Grimes said. “He’s one of the best scorers in the NBA, probably. Walker, one of the best rim protectors. I know he only played like four or five games last year, but everybody knows what he does. Nobody wants to go in that paint, 7’2” guy, he’s going to block shots. He’s going to give us a definite advantage because people aren’t gonna go in that paint, so we can guard and put pressure on the ball even more knowing we got big Walker down in the paint holding it down.
“We got guys like Collin, a dog. Mamu, a dog, already getting out here and getting work in. So, it’s going to be a lot of fun. I feel like we’re going to surprise some people for sure with how good we are and clicking on all cylinders, I think.”
Plenty of Lakers fans and reporters expect this new-look roster to be very good and perhaps even elite offensively. The defensive end is a question mark, but if Grimes holds down the point-of-attack role he’s expected to play, and as long as Kessler stays healthy, L.A. shouldn’t be too bad on that end of the floor.
Grimes is also a capable complementary scorer who averaged 13.4 points a game with the Philadelphia 76ers last season. He spent half a season alongside Luka Doncic on the Dallas Mavericks, which should help him build chemistry with the Lakers’ franchise player.
Los Angeles may not be a true contender, but its roster now looks more balanced, and it seems to have more athleticism, fluidity and bench scoring than it has had in a while.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Quentin Grimes feels Lakers will surprise people this coming season
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire | USA TODAY Network
