The Lakers’ hope is that getting some coaching and inspiration from Will Smith is the slap in the face that they need to end the misery of this 0-4 start.
According to msn.com, “King Richard” star Will Smith, who is a global iconic actor stopped by the Lakers practice facility to talk to the woeful shooting team and try to help motivate LeBron James’ gang and better prepare them for the long season ahead.
These days, Will Smith hardly makes appearances, especially since his public fall from grace after he notoriously smacked legendary comedian Chris Rock on stage during the 94th Academy Awards in March. But apparently, he made an exception, coming out to the Lakers’ practice facility to help spread some words of wisdom for a group of guys whose reputations have taken a bigger beating than even the maligned Smith.
On Wednesday, the Lakers’ Twitter and Instagram accounts revealed that the legendary Philly rapper had stopped by and thanked him for helping the Lakers.
“Huge thank you to Will Smith, who joined the team to discuss strength through togetherness, and practicing gratitude in times of great challenge,” Lakers social media posts said on Wednesday.
Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures
This comes as part of the Lakers’ “Genius Talk” series, a yearly event where famous figures come and speak with players to motivate them to conquer their goals on and off the court. According to MSN, previous speakers included WWE star-turned-actor Dwyane “The Rock” Johnson and legendary rapper Nas.
While this hopefully helps the Lakers get back on track mentally, it’s going to take more than a motivational speech from Mike Lowrey to get the Lakers to play like they actually want a championship.
For starters, LeBron James is going to need to rally his team, and Russell Westbrook is going to have to shape up or ship out. The Lakers are waiting for some pieces to return like Dennis Schröder, and they want to either improve Westbrook’s output or trade him for some valuable assets. The Lakers are clearly in a win-now mode, though they aren’t winning anything, which is why instead of building draft capital and grabbing young future assets, they’re trying to get good pieces to make a run while they have the core tandem of LeBron and Anthony Davis still in place.
Possible Lakers Trades?
The Lakers recently had trade talks with the Pacers to trade Westbrook and some picks for Myles Turner and Buddy Hield, but there were tons of issues with the trade. But if the Lakers can, they’ll look to trade RW after Thanksgiving when Schröder is expected back from his injury.
The Lakers have a lot of answers that they’re going to have to come up with, and even though the season just started, they don’t have a lot of time. The Lakers also don’t want to be in a position where they are scrambling at the end of the season, to make the play-in tournament.
Will Smith’s speech isn’t going to propel them to the playoffs. It’s a nice sentiment for the Lakers, but in reality, winning starts with LeBron James and the team he constructed.
