The Los Angeles Lakers are heading into the offseason with a simple and clear goal, and that’s building a championship contender around Luka Doncic and LeBron James. They knew they didn’t have one in 2024-25, but hoped they could make a run anyways without a traditional starting center. Instead, they lost in five games in the first round to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
While the margin for error on turning their current roster into a contender is slim, both Doncic and James have shown that they can lead teams deep into the playoffs in recent years if they are built properly. LeBron has won a championship and been to a second Western Conference Finals in the last five years. Luka was just in the NBA Finals with the Dallas Mavericks last season.
But one former player who doesn’t fully believe in the Luka-LeBron tandem is Danny Green, a member of the 2020 Lakers team that won the NBA championship. He sees enough flaws in L.A.’s top two that building out a contending roster feels unlikely, via All the Smoke:
“I think they’re explosive offensively. I think they lack a lot defensively… I don’t know how many years he (James) has left longer, and it’s think it’s just really hard to win a championship when your best player is 40 years old… Next year LeBron going to be 41….He can still average 30, 20 something but I just don’t see them winning a championship with that formula right now.”
Green is not alone in this opinion. Many feel that the Lakers do not have enough defense at the top of their roster to be able to contend. This becomes especially true when factoring in Austin Reaves, L.A.’s third-best player. Teams who feature three stars who don’t defend at an elite level have to be built perfectly otherwise to compete.
But, of course, there hasn’t been a significant enough sample size to make sweeping determinations about L.A.’s core. Perhaps James, now a No. 2 or 3 offensive option, could put more energy on the defensive end and become a net positive there over the course of a whole season.
Or the Lakers could land more defensive-minded players this offseason that can hide some of the shortcomings of their top players. Only time will tell on either of those hypotheticals, and whether or not the Lakers can become contenders from that.
LeBron James explains views on analytics
LeBron James has seen it all during his basketball career and has been able to mold his game to fit the times.
Since James came into the NBA in 2003, the offensive game has evolved dramatically. Nowadays, teams are incentivized to hunt layups and 3-pointers, which has drawn criticism from some fans and analysts because the every possession looks nearly identical.
LeBron has heard the fans’ criticism and assured them that the league is doing its best to make games a better viewing experience.
Analytics is the most common refrain when discussing the offensive evolution in the NBA and James offered his honest thoughts on the topic during the latest episode of his “Mind the Game” podcast with Steve Nash.
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