{"id":382183,"date":"2025-12-31T08:16:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T08:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/382183\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T08:16:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T08:16:14","slug":"former-nba-champion-torches-lakers-says-they-are-best-of-the-a-teams-in-the-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/382183\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NBA Champion Torches Lakers, Says They Are “Best Of The A** Teams” In The NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ex-Lakers<\/a> player Nick Young<\/a> is tired of what he\u2019s seeing from his former franchise. He recorded an episode of the show \u2018Gil\u2019s Arena\u2019 where he spoke about how they have become \u201cthe best of the a** teams\u201d in the NBA amid their recent form.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lakers are like the best of the a** teams in the league right now. The top a** team right now. When they play the teams you\u2019re going to see as a challenge in the playoffs, they look bad. The Houstons, the OKCs, whenever they face a team that you think is going to be a good challenge for them, they are not on that level,\u201d said<\/a> Young.<\/p>\n

The Lakers are currently 20-10 for the season following their recent win against a lottery team, the Kings (14th seed in the West). They are currently the fifth seed in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

Only three of those 10 losses have been against the bottom five teams in the league. Seven of their ten losses have come against potential playoff teams and contenders.<\/p>\n

The Lakers themselves have currently been flummoxed over pointing fingers at what or who is responsible for their failures to perform against title-contending teams like the Thunder<\/a>, the Rockets<\/a>, or the Spurs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Due to JJ Redick\u2019s<\/a> recent comments<\/a>, it feels that their problems boil down to two things: questionable coaching and LeBron James<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Redick blamed himself while pointing to LeBron James\u2019 return<\/a> as the moment when the randomness in his offensive strategies began. The Lakers\u2019 head coach also called out his players<\/a> for their lack of effort<\/a>. This, combined with observations in the game<\/a>, made fans believe that LeBron James is the next one to blame<\/a> after Redick.<\/p>\n

On the same episode, Young also spoke about the Lakers needing to have tough conversations with role players and LeBron James as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what separates them from a team like Houston. Everybody on that team knows what they\u2019re supposed to do on that team. Ain\u2019t no confusion about who is supposed to shoot the ball now and then or whatever. Like, look at Nick Smith Jr, he\u2019s never going to be out there like J.R. Smith or me. There\u2019s always going to be LeBron or Luka or AR.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo we want to win? If you want to win, you need to carve out the best three-man role in the NBA. Or do you just want to fight for the No. 1 position?\u201d said Young on what the front office should say to LeBron James.<\/p>\n

While in my personal opinion this take is a bit of an exaggeration, Young is essentially expecting his former franchise to be better. The current team looks like they could have a decent regular season run just to secure a top-four seed in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

But if they don\u2019t figure out their woes against other contenders, at the later stages in the postseason, it may end up costing them, says Young.<\/p>\n

The Lakers are facing<\/a> the Pistons<\/a> tonight, who are the No. 1 team in the East. The result of this game could determine whether Young is exaggerating the issue or if the Lakers have a real problem against top teams in the league.<\/p>\n

We are way too early in the season to even determine if teams are going to be title contenders when the postseason comes. Jumping to such a conclusion after only 10 losses in the season still seems rushed.<\/p>\n

While James definitely needs to increase his effort on defense, I do agree with Young about the Lakers\u2019 coaching staff needing to have tough conversations with players about their roles on the team for them to become a synchronized system. If it starts with talking to LeBron James, then so be it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ex-Lakers player Nick Young is tired of what he\u2019s seeing from his former franchise. He recorded an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-382183","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}