Lakers News: Expert Has No Faith In LA's Ability To Return To Western Conference Finals

Will they prove him wrong?

Anybody could knit-pick at any roster in the NBA and find small things about them that they do not like. We always start off with our own and maybe Rui Hachimura's value in LA spike a bit more than ideal after his playoff breakout stretch and perhaps a bigger guard than 6'2 Gabe Vincent would have been the better bet for LA at their backup point guard position.

But all in all, this team has the pieces to truly make their mark as a top-three team in the Western Conference and have an even better postseason run than last year. At the very least, the purple and gold will be two deep at every position this season and we all know how much LeBron James likes having his options out there on the floor. He'll need to take on as minimal of a role as possible now that he'll be 39-years-old.

There have been a number of interesting trades that definitely do shake things up when it comes to the main opponents LA should look to face, things will not be easy. Phoenix has two of the best scorers in the game as they're starting backcourt and when they get doubled, 'Hey look, Kevin Durant is open.' The Denver Nuggets have not gone anywhere and the Warriors will see how their depth improves with the addition of The Point God.

However, ESPN's Michael Wilbon believes that LA will not reach the same heights as last campaign and points to their reliance on The King as a reason why.

#23 is back 👑 pic.twitter.com/B7cIy4IHLt

— Lakers Empire (@LakersEmpire) July 16, 2023

"I like the moves they made," said Wilson. "But the last three, that's the thing with LeBron, 45,56,55 games that he's played. He is not gonna play 70, the hope is that he plays 60 so when he's out of all those games, how will he hold up... I'm not very confident right now."(Via ESPN)

Let's see if the Lakers can get it done with and without LeBron this year.