The Los Angeles Lakers assembled one of the best “Big 3s” in the league after they traded Anthony Davis for Luka Doncic at the trade deadline.
The move gave the Lakers a star trio of LeBron James, Austin Reaves and Doncic that propelled the team to the third seed in the Western Conference. While Los Angeles lost in the first round to the Minnesota Timberwolves, the three stars give president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka and the front office plenty to work with during the offseason.
Pelinka has already acknowledged that the team will be focused on adding more size in the frontcourt, but he’ll also need more complementary pieces around James, Doncic and Reaves.
As far as his confidence in the three leading men goes, Pelinka said he and the Lakers are fully confident in their abilities to lead the team to a championship.
“The level of confidence in Austin Reaves, LeBron James and Luka Doncic is at an all-time high still, so no change about how we feel about those three guys,” Pelinka said at his end-of-the-season press conference. “And in terms of assessing it, we lost the series so we did not accomplish what we wanted to do which was winning this series. But in every series, to me, it’s like a game of chess. You learn and when you get to play the game the next time you’re better.
“But I think those three guys have incredible promise playing together and we will collectively do a better job to make sure they’re surrounded with the right pieces to have ultimate success and we talked at the beginning what ultimate success is here. We’re going to put in the work to allow that group of guys to win a championship.”
It’s hard to find a better trio of ball-handlers and playmakers on the same team around the league, so Los Angeles already has a leg up there in terms offense. Defense will be the challenge as the Lakers’ lack of rim protection and rebounding was on full display against the Timberwolves.
Still, Pelinka and company should have a better idea of what the roster needs and it’ll be interesting to see who they’ll be able to add in the coming months.
Mark Williams takes victory lap after Lakers’ elimination from playoffs
Mark Williams was considered a huge get for the Lakers at the trade deadline before the team decided to rescind the deal due to a failed physical. It appears Williams still has some hurt feelings over the trade as he took a victory lap after the Lakers were eliminated from the playoffs.
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