JJ Reddick, Los Angeles Lakers
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JJ Redick looks on against the Dallas Mavericks during the fourth quarter.
The Los Angeles Lakers won 50 games in the 2024-25 season, the most since the 2019-20 campaign and second-most since 2011-12. In a perfect world, one would expect JJ Redick’s team to take a leap and improve its win total in the 2025-26 season, especially given the offseason additions Deandre Ayton, Marcus Smart, Jake LaRavia and Adou Thiero.
However, Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey has predicted that the Lakers will once again top out as a 50-32 team, citing the strong competition in the Western Conference.
“The Los Angeles Lakers didn’t make a lot of changes to their 50-win team this offseason, but the individual upgrade from Jaxson Hayes to Deandre Ayton is significant (regardless of what you might think about Ayton as a player),” he wrote.
“And signing Luka Doncic to an extension long before the summer ended should instill a sense of stability throughout the organization.
Oddsmakers Not High on Lakers
“The Slovenian playmaker is clearly the face of the franchise going forward. And while that may ruffle the feathers of 40-year-old LeBron James, it’s the right move,” Bailey continued, explaining why Doncic’s extension wil stabalze the Lakers.
“As L.A. spends the next few years looking for talent that fits its younger generational talent, those two, Ayton and Austin Reaves should allow the team to compete at a high level now.”
It’s worth noting that the oddsmakers in Las Vegas don’t expect the Lakers to be a true force in the Western Conference, with BetMGM setting the team’s over/under wins total at just 47.5, 2.5 wins fewer than Bleacher Report.
As per oddsmakers, the Thunder (62.5), Nuggets (53.5), Rockets (55.5), Clippers (48.5), and Timberwolves (50.5) will all finish with a superior record than the Lakers.
Can Lakers Compete Against Thunder?
While the oddsmakers have pegged the Lakers as a potential sixth seed in the West, Bleacher Report’s projections would have the Lakers tied in the wins column with the Clippers (50-32) and Timberwolves (50-32) in a battle for the fourth seed.
The one thing working against the Lakers is that two of the teams projected to finish above them, the Nuggets and Timberwolves, beat them handily in the playoffs over the last three years, and two others, the Rockets and Thunder, are expected to improve.
As such, analysts such as ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins don’t expect the Lakers to be good enough to compete with the West’s juggernauts, specifically the Thunder, the reigning NBA champions. Speaking on the ‘Road Trippin’ podcast, Perkins said that Luka Doncic had every reason to be ‘jealous’ of reigning NBA Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
“Luka had to watch a young SGA have one of the greatest individual runs in NBA history,” Perkins said, via LakersDaily.
“Luka had to watch that. I hope Luka jealous. I hope he’s jealous. Matter of fact, I believe he is jealous, and you know what, in a good way, he should envy SGA. He should envy him and come back on a mission. I believe he will.”
The Thunder (+225) enter the 2025-26 season as overwhelming favorites to repeat as NBA champions, with the Nuggets (+700) and Cavaliers (+800) in their purview. The Lakers (+1600) own the seventh-shortest odds, per ESPNBet.