While the moniker “Big 3” gets thrown around far too often for players not worthy of such a label, it’s clear the best three players on the Lakers heading into the 2025-26 NBA season are Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves and LeBron James.
This trio provides the Lakers with a tandem that aligns perfectly with the Goldilocks principle, giving the team just the right blend of everything you want from your three best players.
LeBron is the star of stars, having nothing left to accomplish, but all the ability
to achieve anything he desires. Luka, on the other hand, is the young star with something to prove.
He is in the best shape of his life, entering his prime and ready to show his former team, the Mavericks, and anyone who has ever slighted him that he has what it takes to be the leader of an NBA championship team.
Then there’s Reaves, the young player trying to earn a big contract, get the individual accolades missing from his resume and enter the season ready to show that he’s a required piece for the Lakers’ future success.
Now, for the first time ever, the three will play together for a full season.
“The eagerness levels are very high,” Reaves said during media day. “I felt like we had good synergy with the three of us last year towards the end of the year and that’s just basically being thrown in the fire after the trade.
“It was kind of ‘Go play basketball. Go figure it out’ because we didn’t have a lot of time to really mesh that together. But I thought we did a really good job of that and having this preseason to do just that will be really exciting and I think that it’ll really help our team a lot.”
Last year, LeBron, Austin and Reaves got just 21 reagular season games together. The 423 minutes they played were the 12th most of any three-player lineup the Lakers used. Ideally, this season, they’ll be No. 1 and will maximize their potential with an entire NBA season to iron out the kinks.
“I think just going through practices, it’s going to help us a lot,” Luka said on Monday. “Me, LeBron and [Austin Reaves], I think we’re the leaders of this group and us communicating, us practicing some things on the floor will help us a lot.”
In the NBA, we don’t often talk about practice. But it’s a place to work on errors, experiment with ideas and get the reps needed for perfection. Last season, the Lakers trading for Luka in February while he was still recovering from his injury meant they didn’t have time to get things together.
It was a mad dash to the playoffs, and it’s honestly astounding they had as much success as they did. Now, the Lakers have the luxury of time, while last season it was a limited commodity.
Entering year 23, an NBA record, LeBron is still finding joy in all of this. The notion of getting a full 82-game schedule with Luka and Austin has him ready to go, as if he were still a young player.
“Full season with Luka,” LeBron said on media day to Spectrum SportsNet when asked what is motivating him this season. “For real, like I get a full season with Luka. Seeing what Luka was doing in EuroBasket this summer. Everyone’s talking about his body and how in shape he is and all that. Another season under the belt with the coaching staff. We had one year, first year, with JJ and his coaching staff, so we got another full year of that.
“And then everybody knows how I feel about AR. AR is my guy. Rui’s my guy. Vando, Jax, like we get another year under our belt and we get to start right from day one. It was a difficult transition bringing in Luka like the halfway point [of the season] or whatever and trying to figure that out and we all figuring out each other. The best thing about this year is that we’re starting right now, training camp day one, know the system, know what we want to do.”
With LeBron, Luka and Austin, the Lakers have three guys who can easily average 20 points, five rebounds and five assists per game. When looking at the rest of the NBA, one can argue this is the best trio around.
This season, they’ll have a chance to prove that and all three of them seem excited at that proposition. After a whirlwind of a season, the Lakers now have consistency, continuity and the opportunity to realize their full potential.
Considering how accomplished all three of them already are, the concept that they have more they can do together is an exciting one for Lakers fans and a problem for the rest of the league.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
