The Los Angeles Lakers finished with the fourth-worst record in the NBA last season, but Kobe Bryant likes their chances in 2015.
The Lakers guard told Yahoo! Sports’ Marc Spears in a phone interview Tuesday that he thinks the team, which went 21-61 last year, has a shot at making the playoffs.
“Of course it can,” Bryant said. “Absolutely. We have talented players in their respective positions. We have some really young players. How exactly will the pieces of the puzzle fit? We really don’t know.
“We are going to (training) camp trying to piece this together just like every other team does. We have to figure out what our strengths are, figure out what our weaknesses are. And every time we step on the court we are going to try to hide our weaknesses and step up to our strengths.”
Bryant credited the Lakers’ offseason pickups of Roy Hibbert, Brandon Bass and Lou Williams as a reason for his optimism, which is kind of hilarious considering it was revealed in an awkward press conference that he hadn’t spoken to them when they arrived in L.A.
Bryant’s not wrong that the Lakers should be better next season, but that’s not saying much about a team that won just 21 games in an 82-game season. If anything, their disadvantage is the Western Conference is far more competitive than the East, so there likely won’t be a 2014-15 Boston Celtics storyline in L.A.
Sorry, Kobe.
Thumbnail photo via Chris Humphreys/USA TODAY Sports Images
