Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves. Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

Despite their struggles, Lakers are still championship contenders

By Adam Taylor | Last updated Aug 5, 2024 1:22 PM ET

The Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Denver Nuggets in the opening round of the 2024 NBA playoffs. Just a year earlier, they were swept by Nikola Jokic and Co. in the Western Conference Finals.

Darvin Ham paid for his team's inability to overcome the Nuggets with his job, allowing JJ Redick to step into his first head coaching role.

With a new offensive and defensive system, multiple fresh voices within the coaching staff and a year of continuity within the rotation, Austin Reaves believes the Lakers could be a surprise contender next season.

“I like where we’re at,” Reaves said. “I think that we have what we need to go compete for a championship. You look back at the Denver series last year, I forget the statistic, but I think we led for like 140 minutes to their like 38 minutes or something, and we get beat 4-1. Which you can’t really wrap your mind around, but it was just a couple sequences down the stretch that we didn’t execute and they executed. If we do, we’d beat them in that series and we’d go on and have an opportunity to play Minnesota. So I like where we’re at.”

On paper, the Lakers have a strong roster. Anthony Davis and LeBron James are both top-15 players in the NBA, and there are multiple high-level role players within the rotation. Reaves himself is a high-level glue guy who could play a similar role to that of Derrick White with the Boston Celtics, assuming the young combo-guard can improve his defense.

Still, unlocking their undoubted talent has been a difficult puzzle since Frank Vogel led them to a championship in 2020. Davis will likely emerge as the primary offensive option moving forward due to his age and dominance across two levels.

Nevertheless, if Redick can improve the Lakers on the margins and keep their elite talent happy, there's no reason why Los Angeles can't embark on another deep playoff run. After all, Denver has endured a difficult offseason and appears to be a weaker team than it was last season.

Los Angeles has undergone a lot of change over the past two years. Now, Redick has the chance to steady the ship and prove that James still has a chance of adding another championship to his resume before the end of his career.

Adam Taylor

Adam Taylor is a sports journalist based out of the UK. Adam has been covering the NBA for nearly a decade with a core focus on the Boston Celtics. He currently holds bylines with Yardbarker, SB Nation and USA Today

More must-reads: