The 82-game regular season is a marathon, not a sprint, in the NBA. Take the 2024-25 campaign as the perfect example. Sure, the Oklahoma City Thunder went wire-to-wire as the league’s best team, but who was seen as the biggest threat changed by the hour.

For a long time, it was Boston, the reigning Champions continued to strike fear in many people’s eyes up until the Green and White wilted in the Garden in Round 2. However, before the OKC Thunder had to worry about the historic leprechauns, they had to make it through a Western Conference gauntlet.

The Denver Nuggets had plenty of reason for optimism even before taking Oklahoma City to seven games in the 2025 NBA Playoffs rostering the best player in the world. The Houston Rockets were a yapping Yorkie demanding respect in a dog park surrounded by pit bulls. Of course, Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves remained confident until the bitter end of the Thunder’s five-game toppling of their division rivals in the Western Conference Finals.

Though what feels like a distant memory now, as confetti still flutters into the crevasses of the Paycom Center a month following the Thunder’s first title in team history, felt like a daunting challenge some eight weeks ago. Believe it or not, there was a time in the midst of last year’s marathon where Oklahoma City viewed the Los Angeles Lakers as the biggest challengers out West.

This, of course, was made possible by a head-scratching trade that sent Luka Doncic from the 2024 runner-up Dallas Mavericks to the Purple and Gold last February. The City of Angels still hasn’t stopped singing the praises of one Nico Harrison for this decision.

Doncic, a matchup nightmare on his own, joined forces with larger-than-life legend LeBron James and fringe All-Star Austin Reaves.

The fear was heightened following a two-game mini series between these two Western Conference playoff squads just a couple of weeks before the postseason began, in which the two sides split the pair.

Ultimately, the Lakers’ season ended in flames with the Minnesota Timberwolves making quick work of the historic franchise in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

As the offseason began, Los Angeles got to work trying to reshape its roster without having a ton of assets at their disposal.

All things considered, the LaLa Land Lads made the most of a bad situation. The Lakers have brought in DeAndre Ayton, Marcus Smart, Jake LaRavia and Adou Thiero.

For now, James is still part of the organization and despite the drama drummed up by the All-time great, all signs point to it staying that way as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer opted into his $52.7 million deal.

None of these names are the Summer blockbusters Hollywood is used to seeing, but they made the best low-budget film to ever hit the silver screen. Even with the late addition of Doncic, this group was good enough to win 50 games and stake its claim to the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference a year ago.

Ayton was run out of town in Portland with questions swirling about his work ethic and motor, which has remained a trend for his entire career. Now, playing on an $8.1 million deal with the same amount on a player option next season, it feels like the ultimate prove-it deal.

If Netflix were still trotting out the formulaic Last Chance U series, Ayton would fit the billing. This feels like the former No. 1 overall pick’s final chance to make it big in the association. Ideally, opting out of this contract to re-up on a more lucrative deal a year from now.

If Ayton can’t see his offensive game maximized alongside the playmaking chops and scoring gravity of Doncic, this basketball thing will never work out for him at a high level. Sure, he has a long way to go before seeing his name in the upper half of the league’s front-court listings, but the Lakers were never in a position to grab one of those proven players.

With an expected offensive uptick and the defensive upgrade that the current low-effort version of Ayton is from last year’s starting center (Jaxson Hayes), this is a move that truly bolsters Los Angeles’ roster.

Smart is along this same vein, though a vastly more proven NBA player that is in the Hall of Very Good over his career if he misses out on being included in Springfield when it’s all said and done. Almost everyone believes the Oklahoma State product is over the hill after a couple of injury-riddled seasons; how ever often he is on the court for the Lakers will also serve as an upgrade.

The defensive ace isn’t as good as he once was, but he is as good once as he ever was. Of course, he can’t be a go-to stopper anymore, but now, second-year head coach JJ Redick showed flashes in his maiden voyage of maximizing the defensive chops on his roster for stretches of the season. In this team style of defense, Smart can still shine on that end while no longer dominating all alone on an island.

Smart should enjoy the best 3-point shooting campaign of his entire career alongside the playmakers on this team. The only comparable role can most recently be seen in the 2022-23 season when the Celtic great was still donning the Green and White and shooting 37% off the catch.

LaRavia is a career 37% shooter from distance and shot a career-best 42% from beyond the arc a year ago. If anyone believes in role players getting a bump playing alongside all-time great players, the 23-year-old is the perfect candidate for this case study. If nothing else, the former first-round pick gives the Lakers more optionality.

At the end of the day, this is still mostly a star-driven league and the Lakers roster is one of the biggest matchup nightmares in the league in Doncic, a player defining gravity and father time in James and Reaves, who is one of, if not the, best No. 3 option in the NBA.

You add all this together and you easily get one of the biggest threats in the Western Conference, even to the all-mighty Thunder, whose defense has been carved up by Doncic routinely due to their susceptibility to letting up open corner triples and the point guard’s dazzling dishes capitalizing on that weakness.

While the Purple and Gold are not sitting in first class as the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets are, they are in economy plus with a chance to upgrade if their question mark additions pay off.