The Los Angeles Lakers will have some tough challengers coming at their throne.
The Los Angeles Lakers are on the road to a repeat in the 2020-2021 season. However, it appears that it will not be nearly as easy to pull off a championship as it was this season. With offseason trades, rumors, the draft, and free agency signings teams around the league are retooling in an attempt to take the crown from the Lakers.
Going into the 2019-2020 season, it appeared that parity had once again been achieved in the NBA with the league switching from being dominated by superteams to being dominated by duos. This has the possibility of changing depending on the rest of the moves that are made during this offseason and with the return of superstar players who were injured last season.
The Lakers have already bulked up their already star-studded roster since they secured the championship in Orlando. They pulled off a trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder that sent Danny Green and the 28th overall pick in return for Dennis Schröder. Along with this, it appears that the Lakers are not done working the phones for more potential trades.
Also, while they do not have the cap space to make a major splash in free agency, they will likely get a very quality player with their mid-level exception.
Despite the Lakers likely going into the season being the top dogs of the NBA. There are still a handful of teams that should be on their radar and will be able to compete if not beat the Lakers in a seven-game series. These teams will not be ranked in any particular order.