Five Reasons the Lakers Will Win the NBA Championship in 2009

The Lakers will win the NBA Championship next year because:

Andrew Bynum will be healthy (at least we hope).
Bynum averaged 13 points, 10 boards, and two blocks a game while playing only 28 minutes per contest last season. He shot 64 percent from the field and was a steady big man in the middle for the Lakers not only offensively, but also in the otherwise weak L.A. defensive interior. He provided many of the Lakers' defenders a last resort in the paint if their man got by them. He’s young, he’s tough, and he has shown he can bulk up and be the player that Kobe Bryant wants playing alongside him—as evidenced by his emergence early on this season.

Kobe Bryant will be hungrier than ever to win another NBA Championship.
Not many players can say they have won three world championships. At the same time, not many can say they’ve lost two in a row, either. Kobe Bryant is the utmost competitor, and you can be sure that he will be working hard all summer to make it back to the Finals. It’ll start with the Olympics, and I’m sure it will end with countless hours spent in the gym pumping iron while his pinky recovers from the inevitable surgery that will need to be performed. Jackson will continue to harp to Kobe the importance of team basketball (which evaporated from his mind during the Finals) and the need to develop young players. Expect Kobe to take fewer shots next season in favor of more assists, more rebounds and better defense. He’s won the scoring title without Shaq, he has won the MVP of the regular season without Shaq, and he will be wholeheartedly determined to win that elusive title without Shaq next season.

3.        Pau Ga-soft and Lamar O-Dumb will come into the season bigger and more focused.

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