Out of all 30 teams in the NBA, the Los Angeles Lakers may be the most unpredictable. In a recent NBA GM poll conducted by NBA.com, the Purple and Gold were named by 17% of league general managers as the team whose success was the toughest to predict.
1. Los Angeles Lakers – 17%
T-2. Houston Rockets – 13%
T-2. New Orleans Pelicans – 13%
4. Phoenix Suns – 10%
T-5. Dallas Mavericks – 7%
T-5. Philadelphia 76ers – 7%
Also receiving votes: Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, LA Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks, Orlando Magic, Sacramento Kings.
What makes the Lakers so much harder to predict than every other team? After all, they’ve had the same two stars (LeBron James and Anthony Davis) for years and a revolving door of teammates who have had mixed results in the rotation.
Since winning the championship in 2020, the Lakers have been almost completely irrelevant except for their Conference Finals run last year. But even despite recent history, experts are not totally ready to count them out ahead of the 2024-25 campaign.
The biggest reason is LeBron James. Coming out of the Olympics this summer, the King feels refreshed and ready to play elite basketball again like he has for the past 21 years. He dropped 19 points in 16 minutes against the Suns on Sunday and was making elite defensive plays all night long.
There’s also Anthony Davis. While his health has proven to be unreliable in the past, Davis has an enormous impact when healthy that makes the Lakers a threat against any team in the league. After averaging 24.7 points, 12.6 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks per game last season, he could be in store for one of his best stretches yet.
With Darvin Ham gone and replaced with JJ Redick, we’ll see a brand new playbook for the Lakers and a whole new identity for how they want to operate on the court. We know from JJ that changes are being made and the team will prioritize making further adjustments throughout the season.
If the Lakers can get an added boost from their new rookies, it will do a lot to settle concerns. Dalton Knecht out of Tennessee has been an early beacon of hope for the Lakers and he could be someone they keep for years to come. The same goes for Bronny James, who just made history with his dad LeBron this week.
While some might think of the Lakers as a play-in team at best, others think there’s a strong chance they could exceed expectations and finish in the top six. Of course, there’s always the chance for disaster like what we saw during the 2021-22 campaign.
With so many variables at play, it makes sense that the Lakers are seen as hard to read right now and there’s really no telling how their season will go. It’ll be up to LeBron and AD to lead the team to success and bring them back to a state of contention in the Western Conference. For now, the odds are still stacked against them.