Is the Lakers team right now better than the Mavs team that Luka lead to the finals against Boston?
Yeah I think so, but not by a huge margin and I think the Mavericks frontcourt might be slightly better than the Lakers even though I was never super high on Lively/Gafford. And idk, can Ayton keep it up consistently? If not, it's back to Hayes and relying on Lebron playing center for prolong stretches. I still think good centers can give the Lakers fits in the West, and we even saw it last year vs. Minnesota (Gobert)
2nd and 3rd options went from Kyrie and PJ Washington to LeBron James and Austin Reeves. I think Ayton (if motivated) is better than the bigs in Dallas.
Smart, Reeves, Luka, LeBron, and Ayton is a strong starting 5. Kennard, Rui, and LaRavia would round out the playoff rotation. I still think SAS and OKC are a tier above everyone else in the West, but I?d put the Lakers at the top of that next grouping. They are in 3rd place in the west for a reason.
