Rip Hamilton Makes Bold Claim About Lakers Ceiling This Season

The former NBA forward had a bold take on how good he thinks the Lakers will be this season.

Mar 2, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) and guard Luka Doncic (77) react after a play during the first quarter against the LA Clippers at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jason Parkhurst-Imagn Images / Jason Parkhurst-Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Lakers have been on a tear lately. They have won six straight games and 12 of their last 14.

The Lakers started playing this well even before they got Luka Doncic in a trade, so it's not like this is a new thing. Los Angeles has been able change what their ceiling could be.

To them, they are NBA title contenders. They are now second in the Western Conference standings, although they are still 11 games behind Oklahoma City for the top spot.

Still, they think that they have enough to compete for the title even if they don't have home-court advantage throughout the entirety of the playoffs.

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Former NBA All-Star Rip Hamilton thinks this team is one of the teams in the entire league. In fact, he thinks that they could make the NBA Finals this season.

"I could see this team making it to the NBA Finals."@RipHamilton32 on the Luka-LeBron Lakers 👀 pic.twitter.com/9y8A5B70hO

— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 3, 2025

"When they first got Luka, I was a guy that was wondering, 'how it was going to work and 'is this team good enough to get out of the first and second round'? I'm watching this team play now, I could see this team making the NBA Finals."

With how well this team has been playing defensively, even without having a premier rim protector, Hamilton might not be wrong. This team is good enough to get there.

Hamilton wanted to see how the LeBron James and Doncic partnership played together. So far, it looks like it's working well, and Doncic hasn't even gotten back to full speed yet.

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The Lakers need to stay healthy once the playoffs come around. That is when the Lakers will truly be tested with how this roster is put together.

Hamilton understands what it takes to make the NBA Finals. He is part of one of the very few teams in NBA history to win a championship without having a top-ten player on the roster.

Hamilton thinks this Lakers team has enough to take on and defeat the Thunder if they face off against each other in the Western Conference Finals. Right now, that would be the projected matchup.

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