Anthony Davis Thinks Lakers Are Title Contenders: 'I Like Our Chance Against Anybody'

As a tumultuous regular season for the Lakers and star forward Anthony Davis begins to wind down, the team is feeling confident as ever with a chance at the playoffs seemingly in sight.

Los Angeles currently sits in the ninth seed in the Western Conference—the second-to-last spot in the play-in tournament—just 1.5 games out of the sixth seed with nine games left in the season.

Most impressively, the Lakers have managed to recover from a 2-10 start to the year.

But Davis doesn't believe that the Lakers are just in contention to sneak into the playoffs. He feels his squad is good enough to take on any team in the conference and compete for the title as currently constructed. Not just now, but for future seasons as well.

"The team we have now, we feel like not only can we make noise this year, and I like our chance against anybody to be honest," Davis told Dave McMenamin of ESPN. "You put anybody against us, I like our chances. ... Who knows what we could be, what threat we could be next year and then years to come if they work it out and are able to keep this group together."

He even drew comparisons between this year's team to the one that won the championship in 2020 during Davis' first season with the organization.

Davis feels new comers D'Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt and Rui Hachimura fit into similar roles to those of Rajon Rondo, Alex Caruso, Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

That confidence, while some may think is misplaced, likely stems from the Lakers' relative success in the absence of superstar LeBron James, who has missed the last month of the season with a foot injury.

In that time the team has gone 7-5 and managed to not only stay afloat but also climb up the standings in the West.

James could return for the final week of the season, per McMenamin and ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. He was averaging 29.5 points, 8.4 rebounds and 6.9 assists before going out with the injury.

Davis is having an impressive season in his own right, despite missing 26 games this season. At times he has looked like the best version of himself averaging 25.9 points and 12.4 rebounds.

After such a rocky start to the season, it's difficult imagining how the Lakers could now be seen as one of the best teams in the West. But if James manages to return to a level that resembles where he left off, they look like dangerous lurkers if they manage to break into the playoffs.