The too old myth

Aloha

The narrative you read everywhere is that the Lakers are too old to win a ring. A lot of factors as we saw this year goes into winning a championship, health being as important then anything else. One might argue many different things about why the Lakers won’t win a championship but if they don’t win, it won’t be because of age.

Let’s look at the roster. First we have 12 rotation quality guys. We don’t have any typical end of the bench players. With this kind of depth, there will be fewer minutes played and opportunities to rest players through out the year.

LeBron should be over the hill but he’s not. He was the leading candidate for MVP before Hill rolled up on him. a freak accident, not age. Honestly he may retire before he leaves his prime. And having Westbrook should keep his minutes down.

I think it was Phil Jackson that said a player enters his prime at 28 and then they are usually there 4 to 6 years barring injuries. AD is 28 so let’s not worry about him. Westbrook is 32, like KD, Harden, Steph etc. So I’m not concerned about his age. Bazemore is also 32 and Ellington is 33. Perhaps they are at the tale end of there prime but both should have plenty of quality minutes left. So that is potentially our starting line up. All 5 have gas left in the tank.

Now we have THT, Monk and Nunn. All young rotation quality guys to back them up. Take a look at any true contender and you won’t find bench guys much better.

So we have 8 players that you can’t dismiss because of age.

Next up, our centers. Yes they are old. If AD stays healthy does anyone see them combining for even 25 minutes a game? Marc can still be effective in short bursts. And Howard is still a beast. How many young guys in the league have a body like his? It says a lot about your team when Howard is your 12th man.

Last we have a couple of old forwards. Melo had a stellar year last year coming off the bench for 24 minutes a game. Ariza was still effective at 28 minutes a game. I can’t see Melo playing more than 24 and with our depth I really don’t see Ariza playin more then 24 either. Still this my biggest area of concern and I would like to see us add one more forward, preferably a combo forward if possible.

Of all our players I’m actually more concerned about AD with his injury history holding up more then I worry about the old guys. This team is built for this season. Period. And for one season, with injury luck, I feel they are as good as any contender.