All I Want For Christmas For The LA Lakers
- Updated: December 25, 2015
I cannot lie Jeff Duarte came up with this idea and it’s spread throughout our entire team. Jeff thank you for having another amazing idea!
I hope everyone is enjoying time with their families and friends and if you indeed take time to read this I thank you as well. For those who don’t know I was born in Santa Clara, California and my parents were from Los Angeles. That’s where my love for Los Angeles but especially the Lakers comes from.
For years I would I always receive some sort of LA Laker gear on Christmas. A Kobe Bryant jersey, some purple and gold shoes, a … championship t-shirt. Yes, I’m fully aware that even Santa Claus can’t bring the Lakers a championship this year but I thought I’d throw in the championship t-shirt because I’ve been a fan for a while.
Yes, I’m relevantly young speaking but I’ve been watching the Lakers since the mid 90’s. I’ve been a fan of the team during the years before Phil Jackson, after, the return of Jackson, and the almost return of Jackson again. I say all that to say for the first time in a long time my Christmas list doesn’t consist of the Lakers winning a title.
My Christmas wish for the Lakers is to develop the young talent. I like most fans was upset at the news that Byron Scott was moving D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle to the bench. I believe that in order to develop talent you have to throw them in the fire so they can make mistakes. There are few better teachers in life than failure.
But after awhile I realized that this will actually benefit the two young players. They are now in lineups without Bryant so they can learn to depend on each other versus watching Bryant hoist up shots in his final season. I’m legitimately excited to watch these two players grow and I hope Mitch Kupchak lets them hit their maximum value before deciding if they want to trade them or not for the next megastar.
My wishlist for the Lakers is for Kobe Bryant to shoot at will when he’s making shots. Nights like we saw in Washington and Denver are vintage Bryant. Bill Simmons spoke about how people were getting excited on Bryant shooting 10/24 how that’s not a good percentage. I love Simmons and he’s right. But when has Kobe ever been an extremely effective scorer?
He’s a scorer and most of the time that means taking a lot of shots to score a lot of points. I want Kobe to shoot because it’s exciting and nogastilatic, but only if he’s legitimately feeling it that night. Not like in Philly where Lavoy Brisco watched Bryant hit three out of his first four to not see him hit another the rest of the night.
For those who say how can you have development with Kobe jacking up shots. Relax my friend. We’re a little more of a quarter of the year over and Bryant and Lou Williams can fight for shot in the first unit while Russell and Randle work on oncourt chemistry.
My final wish is that the LA Lakers keep their draft. We need the ping pong balls to fall our way so that we keep our draft pick. If they want to fall to the first overall selection I won’t be mad. If we are able to keep our pick and hire a well respected coach we may have a shot at superstar in the summer of 2016.
At the end of the day, even if we don’t get a star in free agency I can settle for Ben Simmons.
Stay with us at Calisportsnews.com as we will keep you up-to-date on all things Los Angeles Lakers and the rest of the LA sports teams! All Cali, All the time!
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2 Comments
About MH
Jeff Duarte
December 25, 2015 at 9:38 pm
You’re welcome! And love the article and the passion you have for the Lakers! Keep up the great work!
MH5
January 4, 2016 at 10:49 am
Thanks Jeff! You da man!