LeBron James Talks State of Lakers Roster on 1-Year Anniversary of Luka Doncic Trade from Mavs
Are the Los Angeles Lakers any closer to winning a championship exactly one year after Luka Dončić was traded to the team?
LeBron James was asked that in so many words following Sunday's 112-100 loss against the New York Knicks, though he mostly sidestepped the question.
"I can only speak to the group that we have here. We're 29-19 right now, we've had some really good moments, we've had some not so good moments. We're gonna try to continue to build on that," he told reporters. "Me speaking on anything other than that is not my pay grade. ... I like this group but we gotta get better and that's good. We should want to get better. It's only Feb. 1. And we wanna continue to get better and better. It's a tough Western Conference, it's a tough league. It's been tough all season dealing with injuries, guys in, guys out. Unfortunately our All-Star 2-guard [Austin Reaves] has been out for a minute and that's a big piece for our team. It's kinda hard to see what we can really, truly be."
The Lakers have played 27 games with both James and Dončić this season and have gone 17-10 in those games, though the team is surprisingly outscored by five points per 100 possessions when the pair shares the court, per NBA.com.
There were always going to be some adjustments, given how ball-dominant both players have been in their careers. The Lakers have pretty clearly shifted to making Dončić the focal point of the franchise since the trade, an adjustment for James.
No franchise in the NBA would mind having Dončić and James, however, and the bigger question in L.A. is about the surrounding cast around them. While Reaves has been fantastic when healthy, the team's defense and supplementary shooting has left something to be desired.
That was on full display Sunday, when the Lakers let the Knicks take control of the game with a 38-point third quarter. L.A., meanwhile, finished just 12-of-42 from three, a brutal shooting display.
The Lakers are still 29-19, of course, a solid record. The issue is that in the loaded Western Conference, that record currently has them seventh in the standings and among the Play-In Tournament seeds (for context, the Lakers would currently be the No. 4 seed in the East).
Expectations are always going to be high for the Lakers. One year after the Dončić acquisition, it's fair to question whether the team is any closer to meeting them.
