While things didn\u2019t start well for them, as Dorian Finney-Smith left the Lakers for the Rockets<\/a>, they bounced back in spectacular fashion.<\/p>\n The Lakers signed Jake LaRavia and Deandre Ayton<\/a> to bolster their ranks. And a few weeks later, thanks to Luka Doncic, the Lakers added Marcus Smart<\/a> to their roster.<\/p>\n As things stand, the Lakers are unlikely to make any more moves. If this is their final roster, it is quite a strong one. And several officials in the NBA seem to agree.<\/p>\n An anonymous NBA executive spoke to Lakers Nation<\/a> recently. When discussing the signings Rob Pelinka and the front office made, they were quite complimentary.<\/p>\n The executive pointed out that the Lakers were able to earn the #3 seed with a weak roster. And now that they have made some upgrades, they could make a run to the Western Conference Finals.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were the third seed last year and did that without a starting-level center. They definitely got better by adding Ayton and Smart.<\/p>\n \u201cI can see them making the conference finals. You can never count out LeBron. I don\u2019t care how old he is. He\u2019s still amazing offensively.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone keeps talking about how great Luka looks after his weight loss. He\u2019s probably hungry to win it all next season.\u201d<\/p>\n JJ Redick\u2019s starting lineup for next season revealed<\/p>\n In the same report, Lakers Nation also reported that head coach JJ Redick<\/a> has decided on what his starting lineup and rotation will be.<\/p>\n The table below shows how Redick will be using his players:<\/p>\n Starting LineupSecond UnitLuka DoncicMarcus SmartAustin ReavesGabe VincentLeBron JamesJake LaRaviaRui HachimuraJarred VanderbiltDeandre AytonJaxson Hayes<\/p>\n This looks to be quite a strong rotation, and the Lakers could do some serious damage in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n Luka Doncic<\/a> and LeBron James<\/a> have to shoulder a heavy load as the stars on their team. But with their other players, they have some reliable pieces who can take some of that load off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The LA Lakers have put in a lot of work this offseason, and one rival NBA executive gave…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,7232,85,7897],"class_list":["post-72819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-sports","tag-western-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"LeBron](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2188955010-941x627.jpg\")
Photo by Meg Oliphant\/Getty ImagesAnonymous NBA executive says LA Lakers can make WCF run<\/p>\n