The Los Angeles Lakers began the 2025-26 NBA season blowing hot and cold, hovering between 4th and 6th in the Western Conference for most of the season. But since the All-Star break, the Lakers are 13-4, 4th-best overall in the league during that span and have won their last nine games to move up to No. 3 in their conference.
Many wonder how the Lakers got here when they didn't make noise at the trade deadline, adding only Luke Kennard . But according to "The Ringer" founder Bill Simmons , it's not something that we haven't seen before from the Lake Show.
"It's after the trade deadline. I don't think that's a coincidence. And this has happened a few times with LeBron teams, but then especially with this team, where they had all these expiring contracts," he said. "And I always think we underrate this as media members, people that watch the league, study it, try to figure out trends, that those six weeks before the deadline when everybody's just in trade rumors constantly."
"Even somebody like Austin Reaves, like Rich and Max be in their pod, and he's talking about 'Can they pay Austin Reaves? Could they possibly trade him?' And people are like, 'Why is he saying that?' And there was just this soap opera stuff. And the trade deadline makes it go away. It's like, well, this is your team now," explained Simmons.
The last time we saw this trade deadline shift was in 2023, when the Lakers acquired D'Angelo Russell and Jared Vanderbilt at the deadline while trading for Rui Hachimura earlier. That team went from 27-32 at the trade deadline to 44-39.
Although they finished 7th, the Lakers benefited after the Golden State Warriors upset the No.3 Sacramento Kings in the first round. Los Angeles went on to defeat Golden State in six games to advance to the 2023 Western Conference Finals, where the eventual champions, the Denver Nuggets , swept them.
While this year's Lakers didn't make as many moves as the 2023 version, their shift began at the same cut-off.
"Luke Kennard's gonna be our shooter. Marcus Smart's gonna have to play," he continued. "Deandre Ayton, it's up to you, buddy. We really don't have anybody else. You're gonna have to be the center. LeBron, you can pass or do whatever you can.You'll be with the team the rest of the year, either buy in or don't.
"I don't know. We've seen this happen before, where the All-Star break is this before and after point. And people are like, 'We're here. I guess this is our team," he added.
Later in the podcast, Bill discussed a scenario in which the Lakers advance to the NBA Finals. The first thing is that they shouldn't face the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs.
Simmons said if either the Houston Rockets or Minnesota Timberwolves is the third seed, the Lakers will advance to the second round. But then that's where the road gets tougher, as Simmons says there is only one scenario where Los Angeles beats San Antonio in a seven-game series.
"There is a scenario for them to beat the Spurs . You have to go 4-3 in a series. Two crazy Luka games, there's two wins. The one game where they have like the 50-15 free throws advantage and everyone on San Antonio fouls out, and then Conspiracy Bill has to make an appearance the next morning. That game's probably built-in, and we somehow get it back to San Antonio for Game 7," he shared .
"Young team at home, biggest game of a lot of them, probably all of them have played in. The old veteran team, we've seen versions of that game go weird. I think the Lakers would just need to get to that game, a Game 7 in San Antonio, let's put the young team to the fire and see how they feel. I think that's the scenario. I don't think they can beat them in six. San Antonio is too good."
In short, Simmons doesn't really think the Lakers will get past the second round because the matchup will be against the Spurs, who have the deeper, younger, and more athletic team. But what if the Spurs are upset in the first round? In that case, the Lake Show might just make the WCF, just like they did in 2023.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Mar 23, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
