1. The Los Angeles Lakers’ title window may not be as large as we hope
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but there is absolutely the possibility that this season is the last season of the Los Angeles Lakers’ current title window. That is not to say that the team will be terrible next season, but we see turnover so frequently in the NBA that is is hard to expect the Lakers to be on top another 4-5 years.
Look at Kobe Bryant’s fourth and fifth championships. The team stayed competitive after 2010 but was unable to reach the NBA Finals again. They were bested by the Oklahoma City Thunder and Dallas Mavericks and then it went downhill from there.
This is more true of the Lakers, whose best player is a 36-year-old with almost the most miles on his body of any athlete… ever. Granted, LeBron James has been defying father time for years and he very well could be elite in three years still, but he eventually will regress.
The Lakers are kind of handcuffed with what they can do as well. The hail-mary option was signing Giannis Antetokounmpo this summer but he opted to stay with the Milwaukee Bucks. There is not really any other superstars that would move the needle significantly for LA.
And they don’t have the capital to make a trade for a big star, either. The team’s draft picks are tied up with the New Orleans Pelicans.
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The Brooklyn Nets already have three top-15 players on the roster for multiple years and several teams are one star away from being legitimate threats. What if Kawhi Leonard opts out of his deal with the Clippers and signs with, say, the Dallas Mavericks or Miami Heat?
Nothing is guaranteed in the NBA and while they will absolutely still be competitive, this might have just been a two-year title window for the Lakers, which makes the improvements this season all the more important.