The NBA GOAT debate may never reach a consensus, but it will never stop LeBron James from trying to make his case. In fact, according to former Lakers guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, LeBron would already be the de facto GOAT if his team hadn't broken up their championship core in the summer of 2020.
“That team, we had a lot of moments where everything just clicked for us. Off the court, on the court, inviting each other to our houses, we were just hanging out with each other," said Pope on 'Above the Rim.' "Those were my brothers, I spent more time with my team than my family… I think if we kept that team together, we would’ve run off two more… There would be no more GOAT talk, that would’ve put [LeBron] at six.”
The 2019-20 campaign was the first title run for the LeBron-era Lakers, and it's been the last one so far. Fresh after trading for Anthony Davis, the Lakers filled out their roster with solid role players, including guys like Montrezl Harrell, Dennis Schroder, and Wesley Matthews. They also traded for Alex Caruso, Danny Green, and Quinn Cook.
The result was a dominant Lakers team that made the fans proud. They went 52-19 in that COVID-shortened season, finishing first in the West to secure home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. The Lakers, who had to spend months in a league-designated quarantine zone, finished the job by winning the championship (17th in franchise history) and restoring honor to the storied franchise.
However, instead of keeping the team together, Rob Pelinka decided to head in a different direction. That summer, months after winning the title, he broke up that team and swapped out some key players in exchange for Dennis Schroder, Marc Gasol, Montrezl Harrell, and Wesley Matthews.
That season (2020-21), without the depth they had previously, the Lakers struggled to hold their place at the top of the standings. They fell to 7th in the West and lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Phoenix Suns.
The Lakers have yet to win the championship since splitting up that 2020 team, and it's a move that they've come to regret. While it was far from a perfect group, they still deserved a chance to defend their title, and now we'll never know what they could have accomplished with more time together.
According to KCP, the Lakers could have won at least two more rings with that group -- giving LeBron six championships, enough to tie Michael Jordan. After everything LeBron has done (4x MVP, NBA's All-Time leading scorer), adding two more titles to his resume would have been all that he needed to secure his legacy as the greatest player in NBA history.
Unfortunately for James, it just wasn't meant to be. Even if the Lakes had managed to keep that group together, they would have faced steep competition against the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021 and the Boston Celtics in 2022. Injuries aside, the Lakers would have struggled against those teams.
Today, that old 2020 team is nothing more than a memory now, and LeBron is all that remains. As the last remnant of the previous era, James knows what it takes to succeed, and he's going to do everything he can to help guide this new group on the path to success.
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