The start of the 2025-26 NBA regular season is now less than two weeks away. While the defending world champion Oklahoma City Thunder are widely expected to repeat as champs this season, it isn’t exactly a guarantee, and a handful of teams are looking to knock the Thunder off their throne.
The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the teams looking to supplant Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and crew. But while they have plenty of star power thanks to LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, few experts consider them to be true championship contenders right now.
In fact, in an annual NBA.com survey of general managers, the Lakers got no votes to win it all this season. Oklahoma City got a whopping 80% of the vote, followed by the Cleveland Cavaliers and Denver Nuggets, which both got 7% of the balloting.
The Lakers also got 7% of the vote when general managers were asked which team’s level of success would be hardest to predict.
There is a significant amount of upward potential this season for L.A., however. If Deandre Ayton is truly committed to the defensive end, if Marcus Smart remains healthy often enough and is close enough to the version of himself who won the 2021-22 Defensive Player of the Year award and if Luka Doncic is truly new and improved, the team could surprise people.
Of course, that’s asking for a considerable number of things to go right. It is certainly possible and realistic, but things haven’t gone that well for the Lakers in several years as far as things turning out better than expected.