Jared Dudley says this season was Lakers’ ‘best chance to win’

Jared Dudley thinks that his team was especially harmed by the unexpected suspension of the NBA season.

In an interview this week with Michael Lee of The Athletic, the Los Angeles Lakers forward spoke on what may now be a lost 2019-20 campaign.

“Even if we win the championship next year, that’s not saying this would not have been our best chance,” said Dudley. “This would have been our best chance to win, even if you go into the future. The optics and everything was set up. We’re going to have homecourt and we don’t know how it would’ve been. Milwaukee might lose a few more games. We might have caught them. Probably most likely not, but you just don’t know.

“The momentum we were carrying going into it, it’s hard to repeat that,” he added. “You see LeBron James teams. He’s had teams that were No. 1. He’s also had teams that slipped up in the regular season and then caught wind in the playoffs. You don’t know next year, we may be the three seed. Yeah, we may beat these other teams in the playoffs, but it’s a lot easier when you have homecourt throughout.

The Lakers had won 11 of their last 13 games before play was suspended. That included wins over the Bucks, Nuggets, Sixers, Celtics, and Clippers. They were also just three games behind the Bucks for the league’s best record.

NBA owners are reportedly pessimistic that the season will be able to resume. While other teams with the clock ticking on their cores such as the Clippers and the Rockets would also be very negatively affected by a cancellation, Dudley and the Lakers are right up there as well.