LeBron James trusts the process, even if he didn’t join the Philadelphia 76ers this summer during his free agency. Instead, James is a Los Angeles Laker, and despite high hopes for how his tenure will go with his new squad, there are a number of challenges that exist with this particular squad. The Lakers have to fold James and a whole bunch of veterans into a roster that is primarily built around guys with, at most, three years of NBA experience.
There will be a process the team follows in Los Angeles, one that very likely could involve some growing pains in the loaded Western Conference. James seems to understand this, and in addition to his belief that a successful season doesn’t necessarily involve a title, the All-NBA forward expressed his belief that the team is going to do a ton of learning over the course of the year.
“There’s a lot of excitement today,” James said at the Lakers’ morning shootaround, per Silver Screen and Roll. “A lot of excitement for our fans I believe, from the city. We’re excited to showcase to our fans what we’ve been working on for the last month.
“I can promise to our fans we’re not the team tonight that we’re gonna be in January and February, but we will be extremely excited to be out there,” James continued.
Now obviously, this can be taken as an ominous sign that if the Lakers aren’t up to par this year, James is going to push for the team to make some major moves so they can compete with the best teams in the league. That’s because, uh, [points in the general direction of last year’s Cleveland Cavaliers].
What James definitely means, though, is that the Lakers will need some time to round into form, which will take time. The good news for James is that we’ll see how far they need to get to match up with the elite squads in the Western Conference on Saturday night, as Los Angeles hosts the Houston Rockets.
(Via Silver Screen and Roll)
