Buha: Most around the NBA see the Lakers as a play-in team

This has been one of the quietest, if not the quietest, offseasons for the Los Angeles Lakers anyone can remember. Other than signing draft picks Dalton Knecht and Bronny James, they have made no other additions. Therefore, their current roster looks almost identical to the one they ended last season with.

Perhaps Knecht, who had a strong showing in Thursday’s summer league win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, will be impressive as a rookie. But it is clear the Lakers need more than that to become legitimate championship contenders.

The question is, if this is the roster they roll with when the new season starts, how good do people around the NBA feel they can realistically be?

According to Jovan Buha, not that good.

Via The Athletic:

“What’s clear from Las Vegas, however, is that many in NBA circles believe the Lakers must upgrade their roster to have a chance at a deep playoff run,” wrote Buha. “In polling more than a dozen front-office executives, coaches, scouts and agents attending the NBA Summer League, most pegged the Lakers as a likely Play-In team, with seeds ranging from fifth to 10th in the West. None view the team’s current version as capable of winning a championship.”

There are two big roster holes that have resulted in this lack of belief.

“Several noted a lack of two-way wings and the hole at backup center behind Davis as reasons for pessimism.”

Buha also noted that nearly all the people polled “expect the Lakers to make a trade at some point ahead of the Feb. 7, 2025 trade deadline.”

Los Angeles went 47-35 this past season, although it mailed it in for a number of games against inferior teams that it lost. In addition, then-head coach Darvin Ham fiddled around with its starting lineup until midseason when he settled on Rui Hachimura as his starting small forward.

From that point on, L.A. went 22-10 and had one of the best offenses in the entire league.