How good will the Lakers be next season? 

Depends who you ask. 

In an appearance on “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” Charles Barkley said the Lakers are “probably better” than the 2024 Dallas Mavericks, whom Luka Doncic carried to the NBA Finals.

On the other end of the spectrum lies Norman Powell, an 11-season NBA veteran who was named an All-Star for the first time in his career last February while playing for the Miami Heat. When Powell was asked who’s the most overrated team in the league during a conversation with streamer N3on, he named the Lakers. 

That’s the fun of this. When it comes to the Lakers, no one knows what their ceiling will be. 

LeBron James left in free agency after spending eight seasons with the team, including carrying them to their first championship in eight years in 2020. They revamped their roster, adding 10 new players. They went all in on Walker Kessler, hoping he’ll transform into a star. 

So, who’s more right about the purple and gold: Barkley or Powell?

Sorry, Chuck, while it’s great that you’re a Laker fan now that LeBron has left, Powell is right here. The Lakers won’t be able to compete with the most elite teams in the West next season.

The West is just too deep.

Lakers Overrated

Even if the Lakers had no holes, they’d be fighting an uphill battle against the Thunder and Spurs, each of whom have a seemingly endless cadre of young legs and talent.

But as things stand, the Lakers are shaky in several key areas, most notably with their porous perimeter defense. They need time to build chemistry. It remains to be seen whether Kessler and Austin Reaves are going to live up to their lofty contracts.

The Lakers might be good. But it’s hard to imagine they’ll be great next season. They’re still a few tweaks away from that. They need reinforcements. They need time to jell.

There’s no margin for error in the West.

We saw how the Lakers performed against the 2025 champion Thunder last season, you know, when they lost their four regular season games by an average of 29.3 points before getting swept by Oklahoma City in the second round of the playoffs. Then the Spurs beat the Thunder to reach the Finals. Those teams are good good.

Are the Lakers really that much better than they were last year? Are they better at all considering they lost James, who pretty much single-handedly led the Lakers past the Rockets in the first round of the playoffs?

Quite frankly, the answer is no.

Make no mistake about it: The Lakers are on the right track.

They got younger. They got faster. They added a skilled center. They’re on their way. But they haven’t arrived. Far from it.

Sure, as long as Doncic is on the Lakers, they’ll be in the mix. He’s hellbent on winning his first championship after the Mavericks stunningly traded him to the Lakers in February 2025.

Last season, he led the league in scoring (33.5 points), was third in assists (8.3) and finished fourth in MVP voting. Before suffering a hamstring strain that sidelined him for the playoffs, he averaged 37.5 points, 8 rebounds and 7.4 assists in March, leading the Lakers to a 15-2 record over that stretch. 

Expect him to be even better next season.

But he still doesn’t have enough around him to get past the Thunder or Spurs.

Reaves, whom the Lakers signed to a four-year, $180 million deal (the richest contract in NBA history for a player who went undrafted) is a borderline All-Star.

Kessler whom the Lakers mortgaged their future to acquire, giving up two unprotected first-round picks (2031 and 2033) and two first-round pick swaps (2028 and 2030), while signing him to a four-year, $130 million deal, is one of the top rebounders and rim patrollers in the league.

But the Lakers need to be virtually bulletproof to reach the championship round. And it’s obvious that at this point they’re not.

Could the Lakers finish top-four in the West? Sure.

Are they Finals bound? No.

Are they the most overrated team in the league? Arguably.

The Lakers are on their way to trying to compete for their first championship since 2020. But being on the freeway is a far cry from approaching the coveted two-car driveway of basketball nirvana.

And right now, it’s impossible to see the Lakers parked there come June.