Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis sets ambitious goal for 2024-25 season

The Los Angeles Lakers have committed to a long-term vision that aspires to simultaneously yield short-term results. It's a risky endeavor, but after years of chasing instant gratification, the Lakers are looking beyond the immediate future when making decisions.

While the Lakers are operating with their eyes on the future, the franchise players are working to ensure the team holds true to its promise to not concede their short-term ambitions.

LeBron James has made it clear that he will enter the 2024-25 season with the goal of adding another championship to his résumé. It's the expected answer from a player who will turn 40 in December and is still competing at an All-NBA level.

According to Joe Vardon of The Athletic, Anthony Davis shared an identically simple yet ambitious goal for the Lakers' 2024-25 season: Win a championship.

"The goal at the end of the day is still to win championships,” Davis said. “You can’t skip steps. The first step is we’re going to hold guys accountable. We’re going to show up to work and if something goes wrong, we’re gonna hold guys accountable, and then from there, we’ll figure it out."

It's a goal that the Lakers aren't currently projected to meet, but perhaps there's more to work with than previously seen.

Anthony Davis has a simple goal for 2024-25: Win a championship

In the weeks leading up to JJ Redick being hired as head coach, the conversation about what Los Angeles was looking for often landed on the word that Davis utilized: Accountability. It's one of several examples of how Los Angeles has spent the 2024 offseason effectively pointing the finger at former head coach Darvin Ham.

Re-signing Max Christie, who averaged just 13.5 minutes per game in two seasons under Ham, to a four-year, $32 million contract is a shining example of that mentality.

It's possible that the Lakers, Davis and James included, feel that addition by subtraction has unlocked a new level of potential for this team. It'll take a lot more than just finding the right coach to get Los Angeles to contender status, but it may be closer than it seems.

For what it's worth, the 2024-25 roster will feature several players who were in the rotation when Los Angeles reached the 2023 Western Conference Finals.

It's also worth noting that the Lakers have the potential to improve from within at multiple positions. Jarred Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent missed a vast majority of the 2023-24 campaign with injuries, and in 2024-25, can help improve the quality of defense down low and along the perimeter.

Furthermore, Christie and Jalen Hood-Schifino rarely saw the court last season, while Dalton Knecht is a promising first-round draft pick who has a strong offensive skill set that the second unit lacked in 2023-24.

All three players have untapped potential that the Lakers are looking to explore this season.

Throw in an injury-plagued campaign from Christian Wood, and the Lakers were more talented than they showed in 2023-24. It's also worth noting that Rui Hachimura, Austin Reaves, and D'Angelo Russell were all unexpectedly benched by Ham last season, thus creating team chemistry issues.

If the Lakers can remain healthy and properly develop their young talent, Davis and James' lofty goals may prove less unrealistic than the general public tends to believe.