This will be an entirely new era for the Los Angeles Lakers as LeBron James has chosen to continue his career elsewhere and Luka Doncic is firmly entrenched as the face of the franchise with Austin Reaves as sidekick. The big question is whether the Lakers can continue their level of success with James no longer on the roster as, to this point, every time he has left a team, they have gotten worse.
Of course, this is an entirely different scenario than those other times, but it is still a legitimate question. And former Laker, and current Spectrum SportsNet analyst, Derek Fisher believes the Lakers won’t fall off significantly the way other teams did when James left.
“You think about the few organizations where LeBron has been, you tell me where their record has gotten dramatically better after he left,” Fisher said during his show on 97.1 The Fan LA. “So it’s not going to fall off that much because Luka is there. I think Luka and Austin Reaves are basically an All-Star backcourt that you can roll out every night, and then Walker Kessler is a young developing almost All-Star-ish type of big in terms of his elite defense and rebounding. So I think you have a chance…45 to 50 wins, a lot of things are going to have to go right, but it feels fair to me.”
Like Fisher said, the key is the Doncic is on this Lakers roster and none of the teams James has left in the past had a player of that caliber in his prime. The Miami Heat in 2015 did have Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh still, but Wade’s best years were behind him while Bosh dealt with blood clots that limited his availability.
Last season, the Lakers started the season 10-4 without James as Doncic and Reaves showed how dynamic they can be together and it can be argued that the supporting cast around them for this coming season is a better fit. The Lakers won 53 games last season and it might be tough to reach that mark, but barring injuries, there is every reason to believe they will be in that range once again.
Danny Green discusses if Lakers ownership drama matters to players
There does remain a bit of a cloud hanging over the Lakers as the ongoing ownership saga, particularly between the Buss siblings’ minority shares, will stretch on into the regular season. And former player Danny Green recently spoke about whether players actually care about that kind of drama.
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