The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the most interesting teams in the NBA entering the 2018-2019 season, and as a result, are also one of the most controversial.
With the Los Angeles Lakers signing of LeBron James earlier in free agency in July, the NBA world went bananas with expectations for this team. It wasn’t surprising that the takes and predictions that followed went in every conceivable direction.
Some said that the young core wasn’t ready for a player of LeBron’s caliber.
Others said that LeBron had simply given up, and went to LA to become a business mogul.
Sure looks like LeBron has given up chasing chips and Michael Jordan. Now he's more interested in chasing Michael B. Jordan.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) July 6, 2018
There were even some who said that the Lakers wouldn’t even make the playoffs in a stacked Western Conference.
Regardless of how you think the Lakers will do this year, expectations for this team are sky-high. LeBron is joining a Lakers roster brimming with potential, which we saw flashes of in recent seasons under Luke Walton. But a LeBron-led team will always carry the ‘championship or bust’ label wherever he goes. It just comes with having the best player in the league on your team.
With that being said, it’s also important to temper our expectations at the same time and to think about what this team is actually capable of. Here are five things we can realistically expect from this Lakers team heading into the 2018-2019 season.