Shams: LeBron, Anthony Davis Feel Lakers Can Be Title Contenders With 1-2 More Pieces

Los Angeles Lakers stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis continue to believe the team can be a serious contender with "another piece or two," according to ESPN's Shams Charania.

Appearing on The Pat McAfee Show, Charania reiterated what he reported Wednesday, when he wrote that James and Davis "are growing concerned about the Lakers' ability to make significant roster upgrades with their two tradeable first-rounders." He added that the players "want the franchise to make moves to contend for a championship."

Charania also laid out the dilemma for general manager Rob Pelinka in that there isn't a silver bullet for Los Angeles right now.

Among the big names with a realistic chance of being moved before the Feb. 6 trade deadline, it's hard to see which addition L.A. can make that would catapult it to the top of the Western Conference.

Disgruntled Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler is readily available, but he's simply not the same player he was even when he helped lead Miami to the 2023 NBA Finals. If that were the case, the Heat probably would've signed him to an extension already.

Beyond Butler, you're talking about the Phoenix Suns' Bradley Beal, Chicago Bulls' Zach LaVine, New Orleans Pelicans' Brandon Ingram and Brooklyn Nets' Cam Johnson. Any one of those players would certainly help the Lakers in some way but probably not to the degree James and Davis are hoping.

This is also where sending D'Angelo Russell to the Brooklyn Nets as part of the Dorian Finney-Smith trade has complicated matters for Pelinka. Los Angeles no longer has Russell's $18.7 million salary to help balance out the money that would be coming in from a blockbuster swap. And offloading Rui Hachimura, Jarred Vanderbilt or Austin Reaves almost certainly hits harder than losing Russell did.

James and Davis' urgency is understandable. They're 40 and 31 respectively, and LeBron is pretty much operating on a year-by-year basis at this point in his career. Being on a team that's good enough to make the playoffs but not good enough to challenge for a title isn't a lot of fun when you've tasted a championship—or championships in James' case—before.

Unfortunately for the Lakers' two best players, that's pretty much where their team is likely doomed to reside.