Mavs Rival Watch: Mediocre Offseason to Plague LeBron James’ Lakers?

As we inch closer to the 2024-25 NBA season, die-hard Dallas Basketball readers are already up-to-date with all the exciting moves the Dallas Mavericks made this summer. Following a run to the NBA Finals, which ended in a loss to the Boston Celtics, the Mavs raised their ceiling even higher by adding Klay Thompson, Naji Marshall, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Quentin Grimes.

If Dallas stays relatively healthy, its roster is considered to be one of the league's top contenders heading into next season. However, some of the Mavs' Western Conference rivals don't have that same luxury.

Despite barely making it into the playoffs and then losing to the Denver Nuggets in five games in the first round, the Los Angeles Lakers didn't do much of anything this summer. Sure, they re-signed LeBron James, which is never a bad thing, but it's telling when your biggest offseason move was bringing back a star player who will turn 40 in December.

Aside from re-signing James, the Lakers drafted Dalton Knecht out of Tennessee in the first round of the NBA Draft, re-signed Max Christie, and hired JJ Redick as their next head coach after firing Harvin Ham.

Related: BREAKING: Mavs vs. Celtics NBA Finals Rematches for 2024-25 Season Revealed

To be fair to the Lakers, they did try to make a few other moves happen, like pulling off a sign-and-trade with the Golden State Warriors for Thompson and re-signing Dinwiddie, but the Mavs beat them to the punch on both fronts. Now, the Lakers will be banking on in-house improvements if they want to live up to the insanely-high hype that's bestowed upon them by the national media each year.

One thing we know for sure: the Mavericks have effectively put themselves in a much higher tier than the Lakers in the NBA's hierarchy.