Lakers News: How Magic Johnson Thinks LA Stacks Up In West

Can LA keep up in the Western Conference this season?

The Western Conference will once again be a full-on blood bath this coming season, and the Lakers are going to need to be ready. Multiple teams upgraded themselves, and some teams just got a little bit of extra experience from last season.

So, LA will need to bring their A-game each night out if they want to make noise this season. Luckily for them, they are one of the teams that did improve themselves over the summer, and they got experience in the postseason from last season as well.

The Lakers are well-positioned to be one of the better teams in the NBA this year, due to the strong offseason that they put together. Many people see this as the truth, including former Lakers player and front-office executive Earvin “Magic” Johnson.

After the news broke that the Portland Trailblazers were trading Damian Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks, with the Phoenix Suns included, Johnson took to social media. He seems to believe that the Lakers should be the favorites out West, despite moves made by some of the other contenders.

The Phoenix Suns got a lot better and a much deeper roster with Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, Nassir Little and Keon Johnson. The Lakers are the best in the West followed by Phoenix and Denver behind them.

— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) September 27, 2023

Johnson believes LA is better than the Sun or defending champion Denver Nuggets. This is high praise for the Lakers, and shows just how strong of a roster they have put together.

However, I'd say that the Lakers are the third-best team in the Western Conference right now. Phoenix has put together a strong offseason, acquiring star Bradley Beal to pair alongside Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. And Denver deserves the benefit of the doubt as the defending champions.

But there aren't any other teams that I would put ahead of LA right now. Dallas could be better than a year ago, the Clippers could be a problem if they can stay healthy, Memphis is good but LA remains better and Golden State is a question mark.

Then the Kings should be good again, but they remain behind the Lakers and the Timberwolves are shaky at best. But don't sleep on the Oklahoma City Thunder or New Orleans Pelicans to improve if health goes their way this season.

The West is absolutely loaded, and there really isn't a bad team in the conference. LA will need to come in prepared each game because teams are going to want to knock them off. 

The Lakers have a certain target on their back when they are good, and we should be in for a very fun season coming up.

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