Rich Paul made a loud statement on his client's behalf, explaining that LeBron James wanted to spend his last seasons in the league competing for championships after picking up the player option for 2025-26. The Los Angeles Lakers, even with their flaws, are not far off from that mix.
Dan Woike, the Lakers writer for The Athletic, made a pit stop on The Zach Lowe Show to remind everyone of that fact. For all the frustrations that have surrounded this offseason, Los Angeles is far from a doomsday scenario.
"The Lakers were really good last year," Woike told Lowe. "That was a good basketball team. ... They go into Oklahoma City, they destroy them. ... They go into Indiana and they beat the Pacers. ... I have a lot of confidence in their ability to be competitive in a series with anyone."
Woike spoke to the fact that despite being thrown together following a 'seismic shifting trade,' there was a lot to like about the team. The problem here for many will be the last visual of the Lakers in 2025 was incredibly disappointing, erasing the good memories in the process.
Lakers flirting with title contention as they await that extra push
The first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves exposed a ton of the Lakers' worst problems. The lack of size, the lack of depth, not having a go-to point of attack defender, etc. were all on display in that matchup. In hindsight, it was a bad draw for Los Angeles.
Starting free agency by losing Dorian Finney-Smith to the Houston Rockets was not going to help their cause of rebuilding good faith. Adding Jake LaRavia did help soften the blow a touch.
The Lakers are still fighting an uphill battle to keep up with some of the other teams in the conference. It is not easy for anyone to watch how well the Rockets or Denver Nuggets have handled themselves by comparison.
Free agency is not over and the Lakers still have time to build on what they have. To their credit, at least Los Angeles addressed the biggest concern on the roster and acquired a legitimate starting center in DeAndre Ayton.
The former Portland Trail Blazers big man is far from perfect. However, Ayton still figures to be a massive step up from what they had in the 2024-25 season after the NBA trade deadline.
With LeBron James at the Lakers game tonight, I asked him if he would like to speak to me about his future with the franchise. “I ain’t got nothing to talk about,” he said. My report for ESPN from Las Vegas. pic.twitter.com/sFRgCYHmqw
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) July 13, 2025
The idea that James and the Lakers are at this big stage of butting heads may have been overplayed. Even so, it still remains clear that James wants to be on a genuine contender in 2025-26.
Rob Pelinka still has work to do in order to maximize this current window with James and Luka Doncic. However, the foundation that is being built on is not overwhelmingly far away from the destination that is desired.