The Los Angeles Lakers completely reworked the roster for the upcoming season, but because of limited finances, most of the signings had to come at a low cost.
Eight players on the roster are making the veteran minimum. Most of them are in the final years of their playing careers.
The ages of new signees Carmelo Anthony (37), Dwight Howard (36), Trevor Ariza (36), Rajon Rondo (35) and others have brought up concerns about the durability of the team throughout the season, especially considering LeBron James (36) and Russell Westbrook (33 in November) aren’t in their primes anymore.
READ: LeBron James responds to age criticisms of new Lakers roster
But, in an interview with Adam Caparell of Complex, Anthony isn’t worried about what is being said by the media and knows why the discourse about the age is the way it is:
To be honest, I think it’ll be too easy for you guys to be like, “Yeah, they’re going to be like this.” It’s too easy. You guys are baiting people to start a debate. It’s all about debate. We get it. We understand it. This is what you guys have to do. We understand that and we laugh at it and take it with a grain of salt and move on because everybody on the outside have their opinions about it and we’re the ones who know who we are. We know what we have to do. We know how we going to do it. Those are the things we have to deal with.
So it’s easy for the outsiders or naysayers to give their overall perspective and it’s very opinionated. And ya’ll should do that. (Laughs) You should do that because it bring more viewers and bring more eyeballs and bring more conversation and more anticipation. If and when it does happen, winning a championship, that’s the fun part.
If the Lakers can prove their age will not hinder their ability to make a deep playoff run, moments like these will be a joy to revisit. L.A. only constructed this type of roster because it’s going all-in for the franchise’s 18th championship, and most of the veterans on the team have been at that stage before.
The main challenge for Los Angeles is staying healthy because the talent on the squad is clear.
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