LeBron's Better Team: 2013 Miami Heat or 2020 Los Angeles Lakers?

Entering his 18th season, this year's Los Angeles Lakers could be the best team of LeBron James' career

LeBron James’ dominance in the NBA has lasted longer than most expected.

James, who is in his 18th season, is coming off winning his fourth championship after leading the Los Angeles Lakers past the Miami Heat last year. James is still considered among the league’s best players, if not the best.

With teammate Anthony Davis reaching the peak of his career and the acquisition of Dennis Schroeder, Montrezl Harrell, Marc Gasol and Wesley Matthew, the Lakers are loaded for another run at the title. The question is this: how does this year’s Lakers stack against the rest of LeBron’s teams?

SI.com writers Ben Pickman and Corey Parson recently weighed in on the debate. For Pickman, it was James’ 2013 Heat team that finished 66-16 and won a second straight championship. For Parson, it is the Lakers because of their offseason additions.

Here are their reasons:

“For me, I think you still have to go to 2013,” Pickman said. “Yes, it ends with an iconic shot in Game 6 by Ray Allen and a Game 7 victory over the Spurs. If you look at that entire season, let’s acknowledge some of the greatness of it. You have Wade and Bosh obviously still playing toward the peak of their powers. And then you have an incredible deep roster, Shane Battier, Udonis Haslem, Mike Miller, Mario Chalmers, Ray Allen. In that season, you have the 27-game win streak, which is the second-longest streak of all-time.”

Parson felt the 2020 Lakers could have a similar record-breaking season but they are mainly focused on adding another piece to James’ trophy collection.

“This team could go on a 27-game winning streak if it was important,” Parson said. “I don’t think it’s important. I think this team is built for the stretch run. It’s built to make a deep playoff run. It’s build to compete in the West and go on to the NBA Finals and be at full strength and be healthy when it gets to that point.”