What do you get when you take an All-NBA player and arguably the basketball GOAT in LeBron James, pair him with arguably the best player in the game in Luka Dončić and add in a budding superstar in Austin
Reaves?
Apparently, just a mediocre trio.
Tim Bontemps of ESPN recently sorted the best trios in the league into tiers. While most would argue the Lakers have a top-five trio in the league, Bontemps didn’t even have them in his top five tiers.
Forget the fact that the Lakers went 19-13 once Luka played with the team, which was the eighth-most wins during that time frame. Ignore that the only thing more consistent than LeBron in this world is the sun rising in the morning. And toss out that Reaves averaged 20.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 5.8 assists, all career highs, and is entering a contract year.
Do all that and maybe you come to the same conclusion of the Lakers ranking outside the top-15 trios in the league.
Bontemps tried to explain the illogicality within his piece.
The Lakers — fairly — believe a team led by Doncic and James can contend with anyone. However, that requires both players to be healthy. And with James already dealing with a sciatica problem that threatens the start of his season for the first time in his remarkable career — plus his status as the league’s oldest player, who is approaching his 41st birthday — health is going to be a constant question. And that’s before the potential shooting issues, as well as the perimeter and interior defensive concerns for this team.
Sure, injuries and age should be taken into account, but it’s a bit dramatic to take LeBron a couple weeks at the start of the season with such doom and gloom.
He has played in at least 70 games over the past two seasons and this sciatica issue doesn’t appear to be serious enough to drop them into the middle of the pack in the NBA regarding trios.
Also, where was this energy for the Clippers, Celtics and Pacers? The Clippers are as geriatric and injury-prone as they come. It is very unlikely Jayson Tatum plays a lot, if at all, this year and the same can be said for Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers. Yet they are placed a tier ahead of LeBron, Luka and Austin?
There are other eyebrow-raising trios ahead of the Lakers. How the Hawks, Pistons and Rockets are all ahead of the Lakers group is beyond my understanding, especially considering that Bontemps didn’t add Trae Young or Kevin Durant in the Atlanta or Houston groupings, respectively.
Actually, I don’t even want to hear the justifications. It’s only going to annoy me even more. Nothing that can be said will convince me that there are double-digit trios on NBA teams better than LeBron, Luka and Reaves.
Perhaps this preseason conclusion is the norm in the NBA. The NBA general managers’ survey was filled with contradictions. They had Luka as a top two MVP candidate, claimed LeBron had the best IQ, but had the Lakers slotted as a play-in team.
The good thing is, once the games start, none of this will matter.
If the Lakers play well, they’ll rack up wins and these articles will be used as receipts that prove that some people don’t know ball.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
