The Lakers' defense of their 2019-20 NBA title didn't go as planned. The team had an up-and-down 2020-21 NBA season and failed to advance out of the first round of the playoffs.
However, LeBron James thinks that the team will be better off for the upcoming season. Why? Because something has changed within the team: the energy. That's something that the Lakers largely lacked last season.
"Last year after coming off the bubble it literally took everything away from you. Any little bit of energy that you had, it was completely gone when we left there," James told reporters at the Lakers' second day of training camp on Thursday. "To come back into the season with the quick start that we had, kind of the life of the party was a little bit, just like, it was just kind of stale. You know, rightfully so. Guys just didn't have an opportunity to get a mental break."
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Indeed, they didn't. The Lakers had just 72 days off between the end of the 2020 NBA Finals on Oct. 11 and the start of the 2020-21 NBA season on Dec. 22. The 2019-20 season was brought to a grinding halt in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so pushing the 2020 NBA playoffs back into September and October was a necessity if the league wanted to finish the season.
Still, it left the Lakers fatigued during the next season, and both James and fellow superstar Anthony Davis missed time with injuries during the condensed schedule. That contributed to the Lakers performing below expectations, but James is happy about the energy with which the Lakers are attacking the upcoming season.
"You could definitely feel the energy shift a lot more in this season the first two practices compared to last," James said.
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It's not a surprise that the energy surrounding the Lakers has changed. They made quite a few changes to their roster during the 2021 offseason. Chief among them was the acquisition of former MVP and triple-double maven Russell Westbrook via a trade with the Wizards. Other experienced players such as Rajon Rondo, DeAndre Jordan, Kent Bazemore, Carmelo Anthony, Malik Monk and Kendrick Nunn were added during the roster overhaul too.
And James has done a great job of helping integrate those players into the Lakers' system so far, as coach Frank Vogel detailed.
"He sets a great tone for attentiveness," Vogel said of James. "Hanging on every word the coaches are saying and making sure he's understanding it, executing it at the right level. I think that sets a tone for the rest of the guys absorbing what we're trying to get through to them. It starts there. ...
"If there's a detail that needs to be cleaned up, he's very vocal in those situations, too. But I think if his voice is hoarse, it's because of the intensity of today's practice. These guys really, really got after it today. So early in training camp, to see guys playing that hard and that physical is a great sign with the talent that we have."
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The Lakers should continue to bring that energy. After all, they will have had 138 days to rest between their early playoff exit and the first game of the upcoming season. That's nearly double what they had before last year's title defense.
