It would be fair to say that the Lakers mean business. After crashing out of the first round of the playoffs to the Phoenix Suns, the Los Angeles outfit is going all out with their post season team-strengthening efforts.
As far as free agency captures, picking up a player of Carmelo Anthony’s obvious talents will not have gone unnoticed among rivals of the Staples Center team and it’s a deal that has most definitely impacted on Frank Vogel’s chances of guiding the L.A Lakers to an NBA title.
Much of the talk of success in the coming season has been reserved for the Brooklyn Nets, but it’s worth keeping a firm eye on Los Angeles Lakers odds in the coming weeks. Having previously been pitched up around (+600-+700) the chance to see Anthony alongside LeBron James, Anthony Davis and another new arrival, Russell Westbrook, has seen their odds move all the way down to (+200).
This makes the Lakers second favorites with most sportsbooks and it’s plain to see why. The sheer strength in depth available to Vogal is frankly frightening and if everything clicks into place it’s hard to see anything other than a deep run into the postseason.
Anthony, set for his 19th season in the NBA, joins on a one-year deal that will add a few more million to the $260m he has earned over the course of his stunning career, a career that has seen the 37-year-old selected for 10 All-Star games but as yet no NBA title (though it’s worth noting he has bagged three Olympic gold medals).
The deal brings Anthony alongside his close friend LeBron, who was drafted in the same year as the Brooklyn born forward, and it will be good to see how they feed off one another in the coming season.
Indeed back in 2016 LeBron made a very interesting comment on a possible partnership with his good friend, stating;
“I really hope that, before our career is over, we can all play together,” LeBron said years ago. “At least one, maybe one or two seasons—me, Melo, D-Wade, CP—we can get a year in. I would actually take a pay cut to do that.”
While the Lakers are now well and truly packed with great players there are some concerns over the overall age of the roster they now have. Anthony, James, Trevor Ariza, Marc Gasol, Dwight Howard, Wayne Ellington, Westbrook and Kent Bazmore, all of these stars are 32 years plus. So while there is something of a dream team shaping up at the Lakers, it does have a shelf-life that is expiring rapidly.
All the more reason you might want to back the Lakers to pick up their second title in three seasons.
Melo started his NBA career at the Denver Nuggets way back in 2003 and hung around until a 2011 move to the New York Knicks and has since taken short-term trips to Oklahoma, Houston and Portland. Could this move finally land him a long overdue NBA ring?
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