Los Angeles Lakers are closer to winning than his 2015 Cleveland Cavaliers says LeBron James

When the self-proclaimed King left South Florida and went back to Cleveland prior to the 2014-15 season, he (along with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love) instantly made the Cavs title contenders. But now he seems to think the new-look Los Angeles Lakers are further along than that team.

When LeBron announced that he was taking his talents to Venice Beach in early July, and was soon joined by Rajon Rondo, Javale Mcgee, Lance Stephenson and Michael Beasley, many national pundits said that the Los Angeles Lakers would be a good team, but not that good.

In their mind, these other vets wouldn’t fit in that well, and their young core, led by Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma, wouldn’t be ready to make a significant difference. This led most to predict either a lower playoff seed for the purple and gold or even a sixth straight year of missing the playoffs.

After two official days of training camp, and weeks of informal scrimmages prior to the start of camp, LeBron seems to be high on his new teammates, as well as the Lakers’ front office.

When ESPN’s Dave McMenamin asked LeBron how his current situation compared to the Cavs in the fall of 2014, the three-time world champion was positively effusive.

"“This city is built on stars. This city breeds stars, and it breeds winners. And I’m a winner, more importantly. But obviously with Jeanie [Buss], Earvin [Magic Johnson] and Rob [Pelinka], they know what it means and know what it feels like to win, so they’re a little bit closer to the finish line than, say, when I first got back to Cleveland."

Before Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka took over the Lakers’ front office, the perception was that then-VP of basketball operations Jim Buss was incompetent and lacking basketball acumen and that he was giving the franchise a reputation of arrogance and tone-deafness around the league.

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Nowadays, the talk is that Johnson and Pelinka know what they’re doing and that they not only listen to players, but they also know how to deal with their wants and needs.

After working out with his new teammates, LeBron seems to like what he’s seen so far. Although Lonzo Ball hasn’t been fully cleared to participate in 5-on-5 scrimmages, LeBron has said that Ball is “destined for greatness, I believe.”

As long as the former UCLA star is ready to play when the season starts, he can make life much easier for LeBron by pushing the ball in transition, taking some of the workload off the four-time MVP. It would also help if Ball starts hitting 3-pointers more than once in a blue moon.

If the Lakers are to surprise people this year, Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma will have to make a significant jump in their on the court production. That’s exactly what Ingram did last season in his second campaign, and LeBron seems to think he’s about to make another sizeable leap in 2018-19, as he said “Look out. I think he’s next.”

As for Kuzma, there’s been much noise around his offseason regimen, both in terms of strength and conditioning, as well as actual basketball work. Kuzma has also but putting in some work with Kobe Bryant. LeBron had this to say about the Flint, MI native:

"”What he’s done for his body and what he’s done for his mind this offseason is going to be huge not only for our team’s success, but him personally.”"

With each day of training camp, the anticipation for their first actual games gets thicker and thicker. If nothing else, the Lakers are back to being relevant. Even if the Lakers aren’t title contenders this season, it looks like Showtime will be back.