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How Luka Doncic will recreate 2024 Mavericks magic to get Lakers to NBA Finals without LeBron James
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- How Luka Doncic will recreate 2024 Mavericks magic to get Lakers to NBA Finals without LeBron James
How Luka Doncic will recreate 2024 Mavericks magic to get Lakers to NBA Finals without LeBron James appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
The Los Angeles Lakers have had a whirlwind of a last couple of weeks, learning that LeBron James would be leaving in free agency and following that up with several big moves. Among them were the sign and trade for Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler , the trade of Deandre Ayton to the Washington Wizards , and the signing of Quentin Grimes and others in free agency.
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Some have questioned whether the Lakers truly have a viable roster in place around Luka Doncic heading into this season, especially now that James will be out of the picture. The fact that the Lakers' best two players, Doncic and newly re-signed Austin Reaves , are both liabilities on defense, would not appear to be a recipe for success at first glance, and Los Angeles didn't exactly get much bigger or more athletic with their subsequent signings.
Still, there is reason to believe that a healthy Doncic can still give this Lakers team a puncher's chance of competing out West, thanks in large part to the precedent he already established with the 2024 Dallas Mavericks . Similarly to his current situation, Doncic also had an offensively talented, defensively challenged co-star in Kyrie Irving on that team, which had plenty of skeptics wondering if Dallas could make that lineup work.
However, the Mavericks' trade deadline acquisitions of PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford , to go along with the presence of talented big man Dereck Lively II and others, ultimately propelled the team to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Boston Celtics . Kessler is arguably better than either Lively II or Gafford were on that team, and the Lakers could still theoretically bring back Hachimura at the right price to help round out the wing position.
Additionally, Grimes, Collin Sexton , and Sandro Mamukelashvili represent a free agency class that is sure to give the Lakers additional shooting, shot creation, and, at least for Mamukelashvili, size, all of which will be at a premium this year. It's also not off the table that the Lakers could flip some of their assets with an offseason trade, similar to the way the Mavericks did in 2024, which ultimately sent them on their run.
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Of course, the Lakers will have some huge obstacles to face in the vaunted Western Conference, namely in the form of the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs , but assuming Doncic once again performs at his usual MVP-candidate level this year, Los Angeles can't be completely written off as a threat.
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