No.3: Utah Jazz
The silent but deadly Utah Jazz make it into the top three teams that are most threatening to the Lakers’ chances at procuring an NBA championship this season. The Jazz are neither a big market team nor likely to get the attention they deserve in being broadcasted on ESPN, TNT, and ABC this season, but they should not be taken lightly.
This Utah Jazz team got bounced in the first round to the Houston Rockets this past season, but are always a threat to beat star-studded Western Conference teams, which was proven the season before when they took down the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round.
Rudy Gobert had the best season of his young career last season and Donovan Mitchell will be a perennial All-Star in this league for years to come. They’re well-coached and are dominant defensively. Similar to the Denver Nuggets, rival teams should expect the Jazz to improve each season due to their young talent.
Now, the Jazz have added Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanovic to their starting lineup, which makes them a nightmare matchup for opposing teams. Mike Conley and Donovan Mitchell represent a small backcourt defensively, but that won’t matter against a Lakers team that lacks offensive prowess in the backcourt.
Rudy Gobert just won the defensive player of the year award, so Anthony Davis to the Lakers might not be as bad for the Utah Jazz as it will be for other teams. Surrounding Gobert offensively is a plethora of sharpshooters in Conley, Mitchell, Bogdanovic, and Joe Ingles.
The only things stopping me from putting Utah higher on my power rankings of teams to threaten the Los Angeles Lakers’ chances of winning an NBA championship are the lack of a perimeter defender to truly stick LeBron James and the team’s youth.