Just after Frank Vogel was fired as the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers in April, a number of veteran head coaches emerged as candidates to replace him.
One of them was Mark Jackson, who had last coached the Golden State Warriors about a decade ago back when Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were starting to emerge as stars.
Before that, Jackson had a productive 17-year career as an NBA point guard.
He didn’t get the job, but he still seems to like the Lakers’ potential for this coming season.
While on ESPN’s First Take, he said the ceiling is very high for the team.
.@MarkJackson13 on the Lakers' ceiling:
"Healthy, they can win a championship." 👀 pic.twitter.com/oQbHfyX84j
— First Take (@FirstTake) July 25, 2022
“Healthy, they can win a championship,” Jackson said. “If they are healthy and they compete on the defensive end, night in and night out.”
Defense was arguably the Lakers’ biggest weakness this past season. They were 21st in defensive rating, 27th in 2-point shooting percentage allowed and 22nd in defensive rebound percentage.
It resulted in many bad starts for the Purple and Gold throughout the 2021-22 campaign.
