LeBron James gets brutally honest about state of Lakers roster ahead of trade deadline originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

LeBron James provided an honest assessment of the Los Angeles Lakers’ roster ahead of the upcoming NBA trade deadline.

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James said that he likes L.A.’s roster as currently constructed. But he also pointed to some inconsistencies and acknowledged that the team needs to needs to be better if its going to make any real noise in an extremely competitive Western Conference.

“I can only speak to the group that we have here. We’re 29-19 right now. We’ve had some really good moments, we’ve had some not so good moments. We’re want to try to continue to build on that. Me speaking on anything other than that is not my pay grade,” James said following L.A.’s 112-100 loss to the New York Knicks on Sunday night.

“I like this group but we got to get better, and that’s good. We should want to get better. … It’s a tough Western Conference, it’s a tough league. It’s been tough all season as far as dealing with injuries, guys in, guys out. Unfortunately, our All-Star two-guard [Austin Reaves] has been out for a minute and that’s a big piece for our team. It’s kind of hard to see what we can really, truly be.”

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It will be interesting to see what the Lakers do at the deadline, if anything. They obviously aren’t going to trade James or Luka Doncic, and with those two off of the table, their assets to make a move with are limited.

They could potentially look to upgrade around Doncic and James by trying to trade guys like Rui Hachimura, Gabe Vincent, Maxi Kleber and Jarred Vanderbilt, but it remains to be seen what kind of return those guys would bring.

Ultimately, the Lakers’ clearest path to improvement might simply be health. As James alluded to, Austin Reaves’ has missed significant chunk of time with a calf injury, and James himself missed 16 of the team’s first 22 games. Doncic has also missed eight games. Given these absences, it’s been difficult for the Lakers to develop a real rhythm.

If the Lakers can get all of their key contributors on the court together over the back end of the season, perhaps they’ll be able to reach their full potential as a team.

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