To be quite honest, if you’d asked me a year ago (when this season actually started — what a year it’s been!) whether I thought I’d be writing an NBA Finals preview for the Lakers, the farthest I’d go in a response was that I was “hopeful”.
The Lakers had a very good team on paper and were anchored by two elite players, but their guard depth and playmaking concerned me. I was also not sure how good they would be on defense, even after acquiring AD. The landscape in the West would be so frought with landmines and other strong teams, being confident about this team reaching the Finals would seem even too optimistic for me.