Angelo Gambogi Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, and DeAndre Ayton are nowhere near championship contenders. The highlights, the regular season record, and ESPN may say otherwise, but this team will never win anything substantial.
In the 2024-25 season, the world saw this Lakers team get put down with ease. The only excuse that was semi-operable was that this team is inexperienced with each other, which had some truth to it, but having half a season to figure out how to connect properly convinces otherwise.
In the off-season, the Lakers acquired DeAndre Ayton, a crucial piece to bring height and “defense” to the team; it was simply inadequate to address their dire need for spacing. What is clear is that LeBron and Luka are a great fit for each other if LeBron were thirty-six instead of forty-one. If LeBron were more athletically able, then he could play a more true power forward position, in which he would not need to bring the ball up and command the floor to bring value. He could bring significant utility by using his strong, speedy build to quickly make moves to dismantle the defense, in conjunction with his ability to guard the opposing team’s best player.
Luka Doncic is possibly the greatest blessing and theLakers’ greatest sicknessd. Currently, Luka is on pace to be the scoring champion of the league, as well as averaging eight rebounds and eight assists per game, by all means, phenomenal numbers, and, as many sports analysts are considering, an MVP season, which is completely reasonable if one only watches highlights and looks at numbers. If one is watching Lakers games and paying attention to real field goal percentage rather than true shooting, many would conclude that Luka should not even be in the top five in MVP voting.
By definition, it is the Most Valuable Player award. If one were to put Nikola Jokic, Anthony Edwards, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Steph Curry, and Cade Cunningham in the position Luka Doncic is in, they are immediately in title contention. If one were to do the opposite, and put Luka Doncic in the shoes of the aforementioned players, they would undoubtedly lose more games. In addition, Luka is number one in turnovers per game, which is something that, without a doubt, hurts the Lakers significantly, especially when Luka is not always bringing the ball up the court.
Besides individual compatibility, this team has relatively low trade value. One could argue that Austin Reaves is a tradeable piece, but for whom exactly? The most logical option is Bam Adebayo, who, himself, is not a high-volume scorer but is a great defender and could be considered equal in trade value to Austin Reaves. However, this is pure speculation, as there are several reasons why such a move might not have been made. One being that Austin Reaves is well-liked by the Lakers (fans, the organization, the team, etc.). Austin also personally wanted to play for the Lakers when he went undrafted. Who knows what the Miami Heat wants for their future, and who knows what the Lakers want for their future?
When all is said and done, no one should think the Lakers have a chance of winning a championship with this current team. Any team with better defense will at least make a game with the Lakers a barn-burner. If LeBron’s goal for the rest of his career is to end on a championship, he should either find a new destination or activate LeGM and make some magic happen to make this team cohesive.
Angelo Gambogi is a member of the Multimedia Journalism class.
About the Author
Grant Bodendorf 
Alexander Loveland 
Nicholas Gardiner 
William Southern 
James Flynn III