Metta World Peace is a big fan of his team.
Only it is his former team. The Lakers.
And like many fans, World Peace is a bit delusional.
The former Lakers forward told Mike Mazzeo of ESPN New York that he believes the Lakers will return to the Finals as the West's representative this year. That is the same Lakers team that is capped out this year, that will not know when Kobe Bryant is returning from a torn Achilles, that lost Dwight Howard to free agency and that was generally dysfunctional all of last year.
Metta, would you care to explain?
I think Kobe [Bryant's] gonna be healthy, they're gonna get Pau [Gasol]. The Lakers are gonna make a big trade like they always do. They're gonna get another good player, boom, boom, and they're gonna go to the Finals. I believe it. Kobe's gonna come back, he's gonna play team ball, and Pau's gonna play well."
Maybe that will happen. Pau Gasol is still a solid player and the Lakers have that strange mystique about them. Nash could still return to form. And a full year with Mike D'Antoni could help more than the dysfunction that the team was last year.
That is a lot of questions to be asking of a team that was unceremoniously swept out of the Playoffs last year and lost, arguably, their second best player. Not to mention World Peace's 12.4 points per game amnestied and lost to the Knicks this summer.
The Lakers are not a young team and could very well struggle to make the Playoffs, let alone get to the Finals. Apparently World Peace forgot about the Spurs, the Thunder, the Grizzlies and Howard's Rockets. Or the Warriors. Or any of the other teams that seem likely to surpass the Lakers this season.
