Nick Young doesn’t think that his former team, the Los Angeles Lakers, is a legitimate contender this season.
According to Young, the Lakers have looked dominant against mediocre and inferior teams, defeating opponents they are expected to beat. However, against the league’s elite, they have struggled, losing more games than they’ve won, including five games to teams with winning records by 20 points or more.
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“The Lakers are like the best of the a-s teams in the league right now, the top a-s team,” said Young. “Like when they play the good, like the teams that you’re going to see, we’re bad. The Houstons, OKCs. They play the teams that you think is going to be a good challenge for them, but they are not on that level. For me, it’s obvious.”
Almost the same records, but entirely different stories
At 21-11 this season, the Lakers are fifth in the Western Conference. They have the same record as the Houston Rockets, who lost to the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night. Both teams are also 5-5 in their last 10 games.
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However, the Rockets are 10-5 against winning teams and 11-6 against those with losing records, while the Lakers are just 7-8 against .500 teams and 13-3 against sub-.500 opponents. This difference extends to point differential: Houston sits at +275 (No.2 overall), while Los Angeles is at -13.
For some, that’s a sign of clutch performance — for others, it’s evidence of barely getting by.
“Everybody on that team (Rockets) knows what they supposed to do on that team. Ain’t no confusion with who’s the star, who’s supposed to shoot the ball. I think you do need to have them conversations…with Bron. You got to sit down and talk to him. ‘Do we want to win?’ You want to win here, you’ve gotta carve out the best three-man role in the NBA,” Young added.
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Polynice said LeBron has to find his place
Another former Laker, Olden Polynice, said that LeBron James needs to realize his standing in the current Lakers hierarchy, which is third behind Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. Once James starts thinking that he is still the player he used to be, it will mess up the whole situation, and without clarity of roles, the Lakers won’t find much success this year.
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“LeBron. 23 years. You’re an amazing player. You’re great. One of the greatest ever. We get all that. But you’ve got to know your place now,” Polynice stated. “And it is the hierarchy of Luka, Reaves, LeBron. He’s going to realize, ‘I’m not going to get the ball as much as I used to,’ because Luka is going to dominate that ball, number one. And Austin Reaves, by playing as well as he did — with the ball in his hands all the time while LeBron was out — solidified him as number two.”
There’s no question that the Lakers have looked shaky since James’ return. But it would be unfair to blame their struggles on a 41-year-old. Sure, he is no longer the defender he used to be, but their defensive issues go beyond him.
Will they be able to fix them? Not without some roster tweaks. That’s why most people tend to agree with Young — despite their superstar power, the Lakers have a clear playoff ceiling as currently constructed.
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This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Jan 4, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.