Despite having 11 players above the age of 32, Metta Sandiford-Artest explains why LeBron James and the Lakers have a real shot at winning the 2022 NBA title.
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After a failure of a season in the 2020-2021 campaign, a team rebuild for the Los Angeles Lakers was inevitable. In an eventful offseason, the front office managed to get LeBron James and Anthony Davis quite a lot of help to win their 2nd championship in three years.
Apart from signing 2017 NBA MVP Russell Westbrook in a blockbuster sign-and-trade deal, the front office even managed to add veterans Carmelo Anthony, Trevor Ariza, Dwight Howard, Deandre Jordan, Wayne Ellington, Kent Bazemore and Rajon Rondo on the squad.
With all the new signings, there are currently 11 players on the roster who are above the age of 32, with Carmelo Anthony being the oldest of the pack at 37. While the team is full of veterans with tons of experience, they do lack youthfulness on the squad.
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While several trolls have been terming the 2020 NBA Champs as a “washed-up” team, there have been several analysts like Kendrick Perkins and former legends like Metta Sandiford-Artest among many others who have their faith in the LeBron-led team.
“The Los Angeles Lakers are the oldest team, but not super old”: Metta Sandiford-Artest on LeBron James and co.
Metta Sandiford-Artest has been backing LAL to win it all this upcoming season, despite their age. Recently, the former NBA champion took it to Twitter and explained why the Lakers can win their 18th title this upcoming season:
“The Lakers are the oldest team in the league but they’re not super old. They’re not all, you know, 39 [and] 40 [years old]. They are right on the edge of being “old”.
“We won a title we [were] like 29 or 30 [years old]. [When] Jordan won his last title, he was probably like 34 [years old]. With that being said, you got a bunch of Hall-Of-Famers whose just exiting their prime. Right? So, they have the intelligence, they still have the physical capabilities. This is one of the reasons why I think the Lakers have the opportunity to win the Finals.”
Here is my reason why I think the @Lakers have the opportunity to win the @NBA championship pic.twitter.com/5786DrgCLF
— Metta World Peace (@MettaWorld37) October 9, 2021
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King James has been ageing like fine wine. Even in his 18th season, he was putting up MVP type numbers before an injury sidelined him for 27 games. Russell Westbrook is coming off his fourth season where he averaged a triple-double. Carmelo Anthony, DeAndre Jordan, Marc Gasol, Dwight Howard and Trevor Ariza are all very experienced role players who add a lot of depth to this star-studded team.
Sure, the Lakers do have a team full of “old” players. However, they are easily one of the early favourites to lift the 2022 NBA Championship, that every team will dread matching up against.
