The Los Angeles Lakers made the biggest waves of any team in the NBA last season when they made the deal to acquire Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks. To say the Laker fans were overjoyed while Dallas rooters were perplexed would be an understatement.
But the only way to measure the true success of that trade is whether the Lakers win a championship as a result. That’s the standard; that’s the intent.
The Lakers won a title with Anthony Davis playing alongside LeBron James; now Davis became almost a punchline as the player who was sent over to Dallas in exchange for Doncic.
Will bettors be overlooking the defensive value Davis brings to a team and underestimating that chemistry may ultimately be a problem.
But this is why they play 82 games, right?
Los Angeles Lakers. Futures at BetOnline
Our lean: Over 48.5 (-115). LeBron as lead facilitator + Luka primary scorer could trend up as chemistry builds.
The key is LeBron and Luka co-existing
The Lakers’ record with Doncic in the lineup was 18-10, which gives a lot of hope for what this team can do together.
The caution comes from the fact that both Doncic and LeBron have historically dominated the ball with their respective teams. And we have seen plenty of scenarios where two stars of that type have difficulty existing together.
If you are a Lakers fan, you have be hoping that there is a partial handing-off of the baton, with the 40-year-old LeBron taking the role of the playmaker, facilitating Doncic being the #1 option on offense. James averaged 8.2 assists last season, with Doncic racking up 7.5.
If there is a “Big Three” here, that third wheel is Austin Reaves, who originally was undrafted out of Oklahoma, and whose star has risen to the point where he averaged 20.2 points last season.
What about that supporting cast?
There are some interesting role players, including Gabe Vincent, who originally came into the NBA as an undrafted player for the Miami Heat; Rui Hachimura, who started 57 games for the Lakers last year, averaging 13.1 ppg, and Marcus Smart, the former NBA Defensive Player of the Year.
Then there’s Deandre Ayton, the first pick in the 2016 draft, who has averaged over ten rebounds a game every season of his career. Ayton, who was released by Portland before the Lakers picked him up, isn’t necessarily your classic “rim-protector,” although the team hopes he can do some of that.
Will there still be some divisiveness over LeBron’s son?
Bronny James was viewed as the “nepo baby” last season, coming in with a two-way contract that produced a minimum of minutes at the NBA level.
Bronny shot only 31.3% from the floor, including just 28% from three-point range.
But Reaves says he’s been very impressed with the way the younger James – “Prince” James, if you will – has performed during camp.
He described a golf outing in which he said to his teammate: “I need to let you know, in preseason and even before that, you’ve been one of the better players out on the floor.”
If Bronny has a strength, in the opinion of some observers, it is that he has good defensive instincts, and one can make himself useful in the NBA if he can contribute on the defensive end.
How many games will the Lakers win?
Last year the Lakers won 50 games, good for third place overall in the Western Conference.
And the West was quite a race. Yes, Oklahoma City dominated. But only two games separated the third place Lakers from the eighth place Grizzlies.
All those teams are going to be in the hunt this season, along with others emerging, most likely Dallas, Portland and San Antonio.
By the same token, we can imagine Houston not getting the end result it was looking for with Kevin Durant, for example.
The Lakers will have a training camp with their superstars, and it’s possible they’ll be improving over the course of their season. We’ll lean toward OVER 48.5 here (-115).
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