Five Reasons the Lakers Will Win the NBA Championship in 2009

The Lakers will win the NBA Championship next year because:

1.     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.

2.     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.
There’s no doubt in any of our minds that these two players have the talent and the potential to be superstars in this league. In Pau’s case, he rolled through the playoffs in the West without many roadblocks, but encountered a much too physical, energetic, and determined Kevin Garnett in the Finals. In the early stages of Game Six, Pau’s main drawback was brought front-and-center when he was nonchalantly tossed to the ground by a quick, physical move from Kevin Garnett. If the Lakers are going to win a championship against a team like the Celtics next season, Pau Gasol will need to hit the gym harder than he ever has this summer (and this will be hard because he will be playing for Spain in the Olympics), work with Kareem (Lakers Special Assistant Coach for big men) on his positioning and toughness on the block, and improve his soft defense. In Lamar’s case, the man just needs to be more focused and keep his head in the game for 48 minutes. Stupid fouls on the defensive side, overambitious drives to the hoop that result in offensive fouls on the other end, and just the general stupor that he usually finds himself in during big games hurts the Lakers. Lamar needs to mature (and something tells me after this year’s Finals he will) and needs to understand exactly what the Lakers need from him—a focused intensity mirroring that of Kevin Garnett’s.

4.     The Laker bench will improve with this experience.
Without the emergence of Sasha Vujacic, Jordan Farmar, and Ronnie Turiaf during different parts of the season and playoffs for the Lakers, L.A. probably wouldn’t have earned the No. 1 seed in the West. I believe the confidence and experience that many of the young players on the bench have collected will help them going into next season. Sasha should continue to improve his defense so that he can stay with the leagues premier shooting guards (Allen just clowned him last game). Jordan should look to add a little muscle and improve his jump shot (especially his three). And Ronnie should continue working on his low-post defense and mid-range jump shot.

5.     The Lakers will improve their defense.
Lets be honest, the Lakers had no real trouble scoring against any team this year, besides the Boston Celtics. What they did have trouble with at times was team defense. We all know Kobe has been an All-NBA First Team defender and that Lamar is a crafty defender as well, but the Lakers have really struggled with their spacing on defense. Routinely during the Finals, a player would get beat and nobody would be at home in the middle to help. I think Phil Jackson and his entire coaching staff will begin to preach defense more and more this summer. It will help enormously if Bynum can come back from his knee injuries and solidify the center of the defense like he did early on in the 2007-08 season.

Check back next time for the five reasons the Lakers will not win the NBA Championship next year.

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