The Los Angeles Lakers have gone from winning a championship less than two years ago to sitting at home watching the play-in last season. A team with Anthony Davis and LeBron James was unable to find a way to surpass a young Pelicans team and was sitting at home for the entire playoffs.
Injuries are the primary reason the Lakers didn’t have a chance to make the playoffs. However, poor roster construction set the Lakers up for failure from the start and left the team with zero chance to make the Finals even if they slipped into the playoffs last season.
Learning from their mistakes, the Lakers’ front office has had a much better offseason, setting the team up not only to return to the playoffs but to contend for a title. As always, this team is going to be reliant on LeBron James staying healthy.
If James cannot stay healthy the team isn’t going to have a chance at hanging in the playoff race. Davis hasn’t proven he can carry a team and this team is built to work around both Davis and James. If both can stay healthy for a majority of the season there are clear reasons to believe this team will win a title.
Here are 5 reasons why the 2022-23 season will end in a Lakers title:
1. League parity
For the first time in a decade, it is hard to find one super team in the league. Despite the Nets having immense talent and the Warriors being the defending champs, there isn’t the LeBron James-led Heat or the Durant Golden State Warriors in this league this season. There is more parity in the league than we have seen in a very long time with 5-10 teams being able to make a legitimate championship argument heading into the season.
The Suns, Bucks, Warriors, Celtics, 76ers, and Grizzlies all have arguments as title favorites while solid offseasons have the Hawks, Clippers, Heat, Cavs, and Nets all forcing their way into the conversation. The point here is that there isn’t a clear title favorite that should scare the Lakers going into the season.
If LeBron and Davis are both healthy and at their best, they are more than capable of taking down the defending champion Warriors. There is a reason Golden State recruited Durant when LeBron was ruling the East and meeting them in the Finals each season.
Without Durant, the Warriors knew they couldn’t beat LeBron and if James can stay healthy this season there isn’t a team that clearly is better than LeBron’s Lakers.