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Darvin Ham

How Pelinka & Ham Have Positioned Lakers’ Transition From LeBron James

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While Rob Pelinka and Darvin Ham have done a great job transforming the Lakers into legitimate contenders, their greatest achievement could turn out to be how they’ve positioned the team to transition from LeBron James.

As Kobe’s agent, Pelinka remembers how tough it was on the Lakers after the team gave Bryant his last big contract and it took a decade to recover and win after Mamba retired. Rob’s committed not to let that happen again. Every move the Lakers made at the trade deadline and this summer was part of a plan to create a roster that could both win without LeBron James and complement and empower Anthony Davis as team’s alpha superstar.

While all the talk of retirement may be premature, Pelinka and Ham know the coming year could be the last year LeBron James wears purple and gold. He might retire or might leave to play with Bronny on another team. The Lakers must be ready to move on. They worked hard over the last year remaking the roster into a legitimate contender and cleaning up their cap sheet so that they have a bevy of tradable contracts and draft capital.

Pelinka and Ham not only built a championship caliber roster that could give James and Davis a chance to win this season but they did it exclusively with younger players specifically chosen for their fits with AD’s timeline. The Lakers did not even add a single player over 30 years of age. Instead, they added young, big, long, athletic players who better fit AD’s timeline and would still be in their prime long after LeBron James had retired.

As the Lakers add the final touches to next season’s roster, Pelinka and Ham have the team perfectly positioned to make a smooth and successful three-step transition from LeBron James to the Anthony Davis era.

Step 1: Agreeing Upon Anthony Davis’ Extension

Step 1 to transition from LeBron James is getting Anthony Davis to sign an extension. Davis will be eligible on August 4th to sign a 3-year $167.6 million extension, committing him to the Lakers for 5-years $251.4 million.

While critics can complain about the games missed due to injuries and the inconsistency on offense, Pelinka and Ham know how essential Anthony Davis is to the Los Angeles Lakers’ current or future championship hopes. The Lakers would be fools to try and trade Davis with this possibly being James’ last year in purple and gold. Internally, the Lakers know they have no option other than to go all-in on Anthony Davis at this point in time.

By locking Davis up for the next five years, the Lakers get the anchor they need to make a smooth and successful transition from LeBron James. It also allows James the freedom to stay with the team as long as he wants. The Lakers know they need continuity to win championships and that starts with locking up Davis for the next five years. Look closely and you can see this roster was built more for Anthony Davis than LeBron James.

The Lakers expressed desire to return to the two-bigs model they used to win the 2020 championship in the bubble is another sign that the Lakers are committed to signing superstar Anthony Davis to a 3-year extension. The Lakers grand plan is to move forward with Anthony Davis and a second superstar who would replace LeBron James, They’ve built a roster that should make them the most coveted landing spot for NBA superstars.

And that is how it should be going forward. Maybe LeBron will bounce back and hold Father Time off for another year but the Lakers are betting on this being Anthony Davis’ team and AD taking the torch from LeBron.

Step 2: Building Roster To Complement Anthony Davis

Step 2 to transition from LeBron James is building a roster to complement and empower Anthony Davis, which is exactly what Pelinka and Ham have successfully been doing since the trade deadline and over the summer.

The Lakers signing Anthony Davis to an extension and then suddenly wanting to revert back to the two-big model used to win their 17th championship in not coincidence. It’s the Lakers doing what AD wants. From the day he joined the Lakers, AD has always been willing to play the five when needed but preferred to play the four. That’s why the Lakers are so focused on Christian Wood. They want a stretch five to play with AD.

And while Pelinka and Ham built a team that could contend for a title, they also did something remarkable in its success and daring, which is build a roster designed to complement Anthony Davis instead of LeBron James; Look at the ages of the players the Lakers have assembled: James 38, Davis 30, Prince 29, Russell 27, Vincent 27, Reaves 25, Hachimura 25, Vanderbilt 24, Hayes 23, Reddish 23, Lewis 20, Hood-Schifino 20, Christie 20.

LeBron James and Anthony Davis are the only Lakers players on the roster over 30-years old. This roster was specifically built for Anthony Davis’ championship window rather than LeBron James possible last season.
The only ways the Lakers acquire a superstar to replace LeBron James is to trade for one or sign one as a free agent. What Pelinka and Ham have done is collect assets that give the Lakers great flexibility to replace James.

The Lakers have one final roster spot to fill, which they plan to fill with a stretch big who space the court and provide more shooting. Top candidates are Christian Wood, Bismack Biyombo, Rudy Gay, and Davis Bertans.

Step 3: Acquiring LeBron James’ Replacement

Step 3 to transition from LeBron James is acquiring the superstar player to replace him, which is always the most difficult step to accomplish. The Lakers can either sign James’ replacement in free agency or trade for him.

How the Lakers replace LeBron will depend on when and how he decides to leave the team. James has a player option for next season, which could make him an free agent next year if he were to exercise it next summer. What James decides will obviously depend heavily on what happens this season. It’s also possible that LeBron feels so good about his own health and the team the Lakers have put together that he signs an extension.

Frankly, the last thing the Lakers want to see is LeBron exercise his player option and retire next season as there is no way with their recent additions that they could clear enough cap space to replace James via free agency. They’re hoping LeBron will decline his player option and play out the last two years of his contract. That would allow for teams, players, and fans to enjoy the farewell tour LeBron deserves for all he’s done for the NBA.

Strategically, that would allow the Lakers to potentially position themselves to be able to clear enough cap space to use James’ expiring salary to sign his replacement via free agency or trade or sign-and-trade for a superstar. After the 2024–25 season, the Lakers would have 6 players under contract for $89 million in salaries. With a projected salary cap of $156 million, the Lakers should easily be able to clear cap space for a max salary superstar.

While it wouldn’t surprise anybody if Davis and James both ended up signing extensions, the Lakers project LeBron James to decline his 2024–25 player option and play the final year of his contract before finally retiring.

Five Wild Cards That Could Decide Whether Lakers Win Championship

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The Lakers have surrounded superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis with an impressive collection of battle-tested young talent that can not only win now but also be part of building championship rosters for the future.

While the Lakers are bringing back all 5 starters and 2 of 5 main backups, they’re also relying on a new untested backups at point guard in Gabe Vincent, small forward in Taurean Prince, and center in Jaxson Hayes. Vincent should be an upgrade over Schroder and Prince finally means the Lakers will have a solid 3&D wing to back up LeBron. The gamble is Jaxson Hayes as the backup center. Can he just do what Lakers need him to do?

Additionally, the Lakers are counting on an untested 20-year old second year guard Max Christie to backup shooting guard. While the Lakers have a lot of upside to like in their backups, they also are vulnerable to wild cards. Wild cards are potentially game changing factors that could either propel or derail a season: supposed strengths that turn into weaknesses when stressed or vulnerabilities that get taken advantage of when exposed.

On paper, the Los Angeles Lakers have made a series of moves ‘on the margins’ to improve their roster size and depth. Whether that translates to the Lakers winning a championship will depend on these five wild cards.

1. Health

When both of your two superstars have missed significant parts of the last three seasons due to injuries, health has to be the single most important wild card that could either propel or derail the Lakers’ 2023–24 season.

The Lakers took smart steps this offseason as insurance against LeBron James or Anthony Davis possibly suffering an injury by getting bigger, deeper, younger, and less reliant on their superstars carrying the load. Strategically, the Lakers hope a deep, diverse, and talented roster could prevent the team from having to overly rely on LeBron James and Anthony Davis to the point where they’re overplayed and, as a result, injured.

LeBron and the Lakers have always been reluctant to fully embrace load management as as strategic priority but the time has come for them to consider setting limits of 30 minutes per game on both James and Davis. That doesn’t mean you can’t break the rule to win a specific game or change it in the playoffs. It just means that you want to wean the team from over relying on their superstars and limit superstar minutes to prevent injuries.

Hopefully, embracing load management will be the wild card that enables the Lakers to keep LeBron James and Anthony Davis fresher and injury free during the long regular season and ready to thrive in the playoffs.

2. Youth

The Lakers’ second biggest wild card is their heavy reliance on youth with 20-year old shooting guard Max Christie and 23-year old center Jaxson Hayes projected as Austin Reaves’ and Anthony Davis’ primary backups.

Those are two major rotation roles that will require leaps in the growth and development of young Max Christie and Jaxson Hayes. While only 20 years old, the Lakers are confident Christie is ready for a role in the rotation. While he’s only in his second year, Max’s game’s already taken a huge leap per his summer league play, showing why the Lakers are justified to have him penciled in the 10-man rotation with which they’ll start this season.

Hayes is a bigger question mark as he was unable to hold a rotation spot in New Orleans despite elite athleticism, talent, and size. Jax realizes this is a great opportunity for him but he will need to focus on protecting the rim. The Lakers believe Hayes could be their center of the future and envision him at some point starting alongside Anthony Davis as the team returns to the two bigs lineups that won the 2020 NBA championship in the bubble.

The Lakers are asking a lot of 20-year old Christy and 23-year old Hayes and will bring them along slowly as key pieces in the rotation. It would be a big wild card for the Lakers if the young Max and Jax can grow into their roles.

3. Size

Size is another Lakers’ wild card. One of their goals this summer was to get bigger at every position: in the backcourt, on the wings, and even at center where they would like to return to the 2020 championship two-bigs model.

The Lakers added 6′ 11′ Hayes, 6′ 8″ Prince, 6′ 7″ Reddish, 6′ 7″ Lewis, 6′ 6″ Hood-Schifino, and 6′ 2″ Vincent to go with 6′ 10″ Davis, 6′ 9″ James, 6′ 8″ Vanderbilt, 6′ 8″ Hachimura, 6′ 6″ Russell, 6′ 5″ Reaves, and 6′ 5″ Christie. That’s a big lineup with 9 players with wingspans over 7′. What’s missing, though, are the quicker smaller guards like Dennis Schroder who can beat defenders off the dribble offensively but are a size liability defensively.

Strategically, the Lakers have been able to compensate for their negative 3-point differential by outscoring opponents in the paint and at the line despite their glaring lack of size in front and backcourt all season long.
By getting bigger and more athletic, the Lakers are hoping they’ll be able to build even bigger advantages in points-in-the-paint and made free throws. It’s their formula for how to win in the NBA without great 3-point shooting.

Size is a wild card that often gets trumped by speed and quickness. The Lakers are doubling down that getting bigger and longer will help them increase their advantages in points-in-the-paint and made free throws.

4. Depth

There is no team in the NBA more starpower driven than the Los Angeles Lakers, where superstars and championships have become synonymous. Yet the Lakers opted to add depth rather than starpower this offseason.

For starpower driven teams like the Lakers, depth has usually been filled with over-the-hill veterans on minimum contracts looking for one last hurrah and an opportunity to win a championship ring before they retire. Rather than add a third star, the Lakers spent their limited cap space on adding depth in the form of young, big, long, and athletic players who can not only backup their starters but also grow and develop into starters.

When analysts look at what Rob Pelinka has done in rebuilding the Lakers on the fly, the most astonishing aspect of the accomplishment is how he has surrounded LeBron and AD with nothing but young athletic players. That’s why depth is a wild card that could come back to haunt the Lakers. They not only did not bring in a veteran scorer like Bogdanovic to close games. Instead they invested win-now resources in the future.

Part of the Lakers’ grand strategy is building a team that has a beating and thriving heart of talented young players with promising upsides that is continually replenished. The Lakers’ wild card is inexperienced depth.

5. Continuity

The good news is the Lakers have finally put together a 13-player roster that is maybe one player away from being a championship caliber squad. The bad news is only 7 of the 13 players were from last season’s roster.

Frankly, the Lakers season-closing finish to make the playoffs much less the conference finals was miraculous and maybe unrepeatable when you consider how little time they had playing together to do what they did. That’s why continuity is still a major wild card with this team. On paper, the Lakers look like a much better and deeper team. They do have five starters and two of five primary backups returning so there’s hope they can gell.

Pelinka has now completed 80% of the job of transforming the Los Angeles Lakers from a lottery team to a championship contender. All that remains is adding a big to the current roster and trading for that last puzzle piece. What’s most astonishing about Pelinka’s makeover is what this deep and talented young roster means in terms of the franchise’s sustainability when LeBron James retires. Lakers are positioned to not miss a beat.

While the Lakers have finally committed to building a sustainable deep roster, their current lack of continuity is potentially the team’s greatest wild card. Hopefully, James and Davis leadership will be able to overcome that.

Could Stealing Brook Lopez From Bucks Save Lakers Plans To Go Big?

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As their strategy to go big and pursue a modern starting center like Myles Turner, Kristaps Porzingis, or Naz Reid slowly implodes, the Lakers would be smart to try to steal center Brook Lopez from the Milwaukee Bucks.

Realistically, Brook Lopez may be the Lakers’ last chance to acquire a modern starting center this summer. The Pacers may be unwilling to trade Turner and Porzingis and Reid have already been traded to competitors. The Lakers believe their conference finals run ended partly due to their lack of positional size advantage against the Nuggets. Starting Lopez at center and moving James and Davis down a position would solve that.

While Lopez is 35 and injury prone, he’s also coming off what could be his career best season, shooting 37.4% from deep, blocking the 3rd most shots in the league, and finishing a close second to Jaren Jackson, Jr. for DPOY. Frankly, Brook is not only a perfect a fit for what L.A. needs at center as he can stretch the floor and protect the rim but now he may also now be the last available, affordable modern starting center left this summer.

Let’s look at what Brook Lopez’ is worth today as a free agent, whom the Lakers will be competing with to acquire him, and what the Lakers sign-and-trade deal, depth chart, and salary cap will look like post-trade.

What Is 35-Year Old Brook Lopez’ Market Value?

Lopez just finished a 4-year $52 million contract with the Milwaukee Bucks, who are at a franchise crossroads with Mike Budenholzer being fired and both Brook Lopez and Khris Middleton hitting unrestricted free agency.

Brook averaged 15.9 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 2.5 blocks, 0.5 steals in 30.4 minutes per game while shooting 53.1% from the field, 37.4% from deep, and 78.4% from the line on 11.5 shots, 4.7 threes, and 2.4 free throws. Were he 25-years old rather than 35-years old, Lopez would be worth a max salary. Regardless of age, Brook had a year for which he deserves a raise from the $13 million per year he earned in his last contract with the Bucks.

The maximum deal Brook can sign with the Bucks is $54 million over three years due to the “over-38-rule,” which prevents him from signing a deal for four years or longer since he would turn 38-years old during that contract. Right now, it’s unknown whether the Bucks are going to bring back Lopez and/or Middleton. Milwaukee knows their core is getting older and the first round exit in the playoffs could motivate the front office to get younger.

Most NBA prognosticators project 35-year old Brook Lopez’ contract value as between $40 to $60 million over three years but the Milwaukee Bucks are rumored to want to sign him to a 2-year deal for between $30 to $35 million. The Athletic’s John Hollinger’s BORD$ value for Lopez is $16,241,034 though he says: “I don’t think the money gets quite as low as this, but maybe something in the range of $55 million to $60 million over three years?”

The Los Angeles Lakers have a unique opportunity to steal Brook Lopez from the Milwaukee Bucks and other NBA teams. Brook Lopez is likely going to command a fully guaranteed 3-year contract for $50-60 million.

Who Are Lakers’ Competition For Brook Lopez?

The NBA teams listed as free agent destinations for Brook Lopez include the Houston Rockets, Sacramento Kings, Dallas Mavericks, Atlanta Hawks, New Orleans Pelicans, Los Angeles Clippers, and Los Angeles Lakers.

The Bucks have to be considered to be the favorites to re-sign Brook Lopez and it would not be a complete surprise if they made a move before free agency to lock him up similar to what the Timberwolves did with Naz Reid. Of the other teams interested in signing Lopez in free agency, the Rockets, Spurs, Thunder, Hawks, and Kings can all create enough cap space to sign Brook Lopez in free agency this summer for 3-years and up to $60 million.

While the Lakers could make moves to pursue Lopez in free agency, it makes more sense for them to pursue a sign-and-trade for him even though that would hardcap them at $172.7 million total payroll for next season. The difference is the Lakers would have to renounce D’Angelo Russell to create the cap space to sign Brook Lopez as free agent, which would then limit the Lakers to only being able to offer Russell the $12.4 million MLE.

Bottom line, there’s going to be no shortage of NBA teams interested in signing Brook Lopez in free agency next week but the big question is how many will be willing to give 35-year old center a guaranteed 3-year deal? The fact that Brook Lopez played for and has great respect for Lakers’ head coach Darvin Ham during his years as an assistant for Mike Budenholzer on the Milwaukee Bucks could give the Lakers an edge over other teams.

Brook Lopez is likely looking at the last contract of his career so there’s always the chance he will chase the most money. In any event, the Lakers need to offer him three years and $60 million guaranteed to sign him.

How Do Lakers Look After Brook Lopez Trade?

While the Lakers could renounce players they do not plan to keep to create cap space to sign Brook Lopez to a guaranteed 3-year $60 million free agent contract, the cleaner and smarter route would be to sign-and-trade for him.

While signing-and-trading for Lopez would hard cap the Lakers’ total team salaries at $172.3 million for next season, they would still be able to bring back the core of the roster that made it to the Western Conference Finals. James, Davis, Vanderbilt, and Christie were under contract. Lakers used Bird rights to re-sign Russell, Reaves, and Hachimura and the BAE to bring back Lonnie Walker IV. Along with Lopez, that’s a solid 9-man rotation.

Note this scenario assumes the Lakers plan to rely on the acumen of their scouting staff to fill out the roster with more less-expensive two-way and undrafted players and fewer more-expensive minimum-salary veterans. Here’s a detailed breakdown of the salary cap that shows the salary for each player next season and the total team payroll and then compares that total to the two luxury tax aprons and calculates how much the team is under.

The Lakers have a unique opportunity to approach Brook Lopez with a proposed 3-year $60 million sign-and-trade to return to Los Angeles as the team’s starting center with a special lifetime Gold Pass to Disneyland.

With the Nuggets officially crowned and the Warriors and Suns building superteams, the Lakers’ path to this season’s NBA championship is likely to be tougher and more difficult and challenging than faced last season. While the Lakers plan to bring back most of the core from their conference finals team and have pledged to upgrade the team to championship caliber. The surest and easiest way to do that is to sign-and-trade for Brook Lopez.

Signing-and-trading for Brook Lopez and adding him to the core of their conference finals team is the kind of move that should transform the Los Angeles Lakers into the favorite to win the 2023-24 NBA Championship.

Lakers On Brink Of Elimination Need Miraculous Comeback to Save Season

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LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers are down 0–3 and facing the harsh reality that none of the 149 NBA teams who found themselves down 0–3 was ever able to mount a comeback and win a 7-game playoff series.

Make no mistake. LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Lakers are not going wave a white flag or throw in the towel. As long as LeBron James and Anthony Davis can lace them up, they’re going to keep on trying to win. James has always had a problematic relationship with the ‘impossible’ and actually proved it was possible to come back from 1–3 in the NBA Finals. What makes you think LeBron can’t make coming back from 0–3 possible?

The most frustrating and infuriating part of being down 0–3 to the Nuggets is that the Lakers had opportunities to win all three games but essentially were clearly outplayed in the last five minutes of each of the three games. The reality from the first three games of the Western Conference Finals is the Nuggets are now better than the Lakers and Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are now better superstars than LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

Frankly, I’m not ready to accept those conclusions from a 3-game sample. Nor am I as a fan, ready to concede LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Los Angeles Lakers can’t win four straight games from the Denver Nuggets. It certainly won’t be easy, especially with two of the four games in Denver, but the Lakers have no choice but to take the series one game at a time. Right now, the goal is to win Game 4 Monday night and extend the series.

Assuming the Lakers are going to try and win Game 4 Monday night, there are questions to answer, including how hard should Lakers be trying, who should start, and how hard and long to play injury-prone James and Davis.

How Hard Should Lakers Try?

There’s no way this Lakers team doesn’t come out with an all-out desperate aggressive attempt to win Game 4 and force the series to Game 5. This team has never quit and they’re going to die trying before getting swept in four.

Lebron James is 14–11 in elimination games and while no NBA team has ever come back from being down 0–3, he’s the one who’s proven before that ‘once impossible’ tasks can sometimes be changed to ‘now possible’ tasks. Being down 0–3 to the Nuggets is going to be a great character test for this Lakers team. Do they fold like wet laundry or come out angry and defiant and ready to prove they’re not overrated and overhyped as Nuggets claim?

As LeBron showed against the Dubs, nothing is impossible. Win Monday night and the series becomes 1–3. Denver can still pull off a Gentleman’s Sweep. Win in Denver on Wednesday night and then everything changes. Suddenly, the series is 2–3 and the Lakers are just 1 home win away from forcing a Game 7. Win Game 7 in Denver and the Lakers are then just four wins against the Miami Heat from winning their 18th NBA Championship.

The Lakers have to be asking themselves as players and team if they believe they’re still the same team they were before the conference finals began, the team that was totally confident they could beat anybody and win it all? Or did the brash Denver Nuggets steal their competitive soul along with their championship hopes by winning those three games? Or even worse, irreparably damage their self-confidence to be champions in the future?

How the Lakers play tonight will give you their answer. I, for one, fully expect nothing but the kind of win we expected but did not get in Game 3. Lakers have a lot to fight for and prove tonight by preventing a sweep.

Should Ham Change Starters?

Winning Game 4 is an opportunity for Darvin Ham to change the narrative of the 2023 West Finals from his being outcoached by the Nuggets’ Michael Malone to how the Lakers smartly fought back and turned 0–3 into a series.

The first move that Ham needs to make is to bench D’Angelo Russell, who has potentially played himself off of the Lakers and out of a new free agent deal close to the $30 million he’s making in the last year of his contract. While Game 4 could be an opportunity for D’Angelo Russell to start to redeem himself, he’s going to have to be content to do that off the bench. The Lakers need to win this game to avoid an embarrassing sweep.

His logical replacement should be Dennis Schroder, who has the Lakers’ best defensive rating in the series but he has not been providing the outside shooting, points at the rim, or playmaking in the paint the Lakers need. Darvin Ham might be smart to turn instead to Lonnie Walker IV or even untested Max Christie, both of whom have the size and length to defend Murray and the handle, shooting, and playmaking to complement Reaves.

Finally, Darvin Ham needs to start Rui Hachimura, who is the only Lakers player in this series with a positive plus/minus. Hachimura is averaging 10 points per game more than any player not named James, Davis, or Reaves. His ability to play Nikola Jokic 1-on-1 with Anthony Davis providing weak side help has been the Lakers only effective defensive scheme against the Nuggets’ two-time MVP. Hachimura needs play 40 minutes in Game 4.

Darvin Ham will likely start Schroder, Reaves, James, Hachimura, and Davis for Game 4. Russell and Vanderbilt will come off the bench but have short leashes. Lakers need to get off to fast start to lesseon the pressure.

Load Manage James and Davis?

Much as the Lakers would like to pull off a miracle comeback from being down 0–3, the last thing this franchise needs to do is risk a major injury to one of their superstars in a game that has only a remote chance to matter.

Ham and the Lakers should go all out to win this game because it is a test of their heart and character but leaving James and Davis in the game should the Nuggets get ahead by more than 10 points would be too foolish to risk. Both LeBron James and Anthony Davis have long time foot injuries that may require offseason surgery. They both have essentially been playing ‘must win’ games for over two months and they have to be exhausted.

Frankly, the Lakers and their fans desperately need to win Monday night and avoid the bad taste of getting swept. Somehow, some way, Los Angeles has to figure out how to win and keep the series going back to Denver. That’s why Game 4 is so important. The last thing the Lakers want is to spend the entire summer after being swept in a series they thought they could win. All they can do at this point is play one game at a time.

As for James and Davis, the Lakers’ load management has to incorporate the odds the team is playing against when it comes to heavily relying on James and Davis to play heavy minutes under intense playoff pressure. Until the Lakers win a couple of games, the Lakers have to be careful not to risk James and Davis getting injured in playoff games they’re likely to lose. Should the Lakers get the series to 2–3, then it’s all out for James and Davis.

The ideal situation for Game 4 would be for the Lakers to lead the Nuggets by 20 at the half and seal the game in the third quarter so James and Davis could sit the entire fourth quarter. Do that and Lakers will be alive.

Lakers Won’t Play with ‘House Money’ Or Accept Less Than A Championship

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LeBron James and Anthony Davis rejected claims by Lakers doubters and critics who want to put a ceiling on their season and confirmed they’re not satisfied just playing with house money. They want another championship.

That may be presumptuous for a #7 seed that had to finish the season on 41–29 tear and win an overtime Play-In game to make the playoffs but after upsetting the Grizzlies and Warriors, the Lakers are now getting greedy. When asked if the Lakers were happy to be playing with ‘house money,’ LeBron James and Anthony Davis dismissed the idea they’d be satisfied with doing that and reiterated their only goal was another championship.

The idea LeBron James and Anthony Davis should be happy to be where they are and satisfied that they have made it to the conference finals is contrary to everything we know about what winning means to them.
“That’s y’all expectation,” Davis said. “Our expectations inside are way higher than showing up to the Western Conference finals. Want to shock the world. … Me and Bron want another one, now it’s time to go get it.”

Even after dominating both the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round and the champion Golden State Warriors in the second round in six games, the Los Angeles Lakers are still being universally underrated and disrespected. Despite having the #1 rated defense in the entire playoffs, the Lakers are still underdogs to the Boston Celtics, who are current favorites to win their 18th NBA championship, and Denver Nuggets, whom the Lakers play next.

After starting out 2–10, the Lakers were essentially written off by everyone as they fell to 13th in the West with a 25–31 record 13 games behind the top seeded Denver Nuggets as they approached the February 9 trade deadline. Then came the big trades by Rob Pelinka that saved the Lakers season. They traded Westbrook, a first round pick, and 5 five unwanted players for 5 rotation players in Hachimura, Russell, Vanderbilt, Beasley, and Bamba.

The trade for 5 new players combined with the emergence of Austin Reaves as a secondary star and the return to the rotation of Lonnie Walker IV have transformed the Lakers from lottery team to a championship contender. The new-look Lakers now have a dramatically improved starting lineup and a deep and diverse 8-player rotation that’s growing and getting better every game. The Lakers have 5 players averaging double digits in playoffs.

The NBA media has been slow to react to the Lakers’ playoff dominance and it will likely take another road upset by the Lakers to start the West finals before the pundits and prognosticators become ‘woke’ on the Lakers. The Lakers will follow the same plan for winning road series that worked in Memphis and San Francisco: Steal one of the two first home games in Denver and then sweep them in L.A. to take a commanding 3–1 lead.

Unlike the first two rounds, the Nuggets will be the Lakers’ first playoff opponent with an elite center in Nikola Jokic who can challenge Anthony Davis and who has the 3-point gravity to draw him away from the rim.
The Lakers will likely return to their usual starting lineup with defensive ace Jarred Vanderbilt although there’s also a possibility the Lakers might opt to go bigger by starting Rui Hachimura instead of Vanderbilt.

Strategically, Darvin Ham needs to have Anthony Davis’ mirror Nikola Jokic’s minutes. Lakers cannot allow Joker to go against a lineup without Anthony Davis. Lakers should play Bamba when AD goes to the bench.
The Lakers will hopefully be able to have Davis play Jokic 1-on-1 and turn him into a big scorer rather than a playmaker. They need to control him and make him one-dimensional. Davis is Lakers’ advantage over Jokic.

While the rest of the basketball world may not yet realize how good this Lakers’ roster could be, LeBron James and Anthony Davis both totally understand they’re just 8 more wins from their 18th NBA championship.