“He's gonna perform at an All-NBA level” – Former NBA player says LeBron James will be back at his best, Lakers need to embrace underdog role
This season will mark one of the few in LeBron James' career where he isn’t expected to win an NBA championship. James is no longer the clear-cut best player in the league that he was throughout the majority of his career. The LA Lakers also don’t seem to have the pieces needed to contend for a championship.
So according to Jalen Rose, the team should now start embracing the underdog role. On a recent episode of ESPNs “Jalen & Jacoby,” Rose talked about his expectations from the Lakers:
“How about the fact that, of course, they're gonna embrace the underdog role. Because that represents the opposite of what it is to be a favorite. And that they're not and won't be.”
Rose also spoke about his expectations from LeBron James:
“He's gonna perform at an All-NBA level. As much as we love seeing LeBron playing at Rucker (Park). And playing at The CrawsOver in Seattle, you know what he’d rather have been doing? Playing in the NBA Finals and resting those weeks. So, he's gonna be enthusiastic about this season."
Rose had some fun at the expense of James as well:
“And the one thing I appreciate, though, is LeBron got his hair back. ... I'm just glad he got his hair back for the season.”
Considering James is entering his 20th season and will be turning 38 in December, an All-NBA appearance would still be quite impressive. Only two players in league history have done so at the age of 38 or older. The two players to do so are Tim Duncan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Meanwhile, the Lakers as a team are coming off a dreadful 33-49 season where they finished 11th in the Western Conference. If they can embrace the underdog approach and grind their way into the playoffs, it would certainly be a step up from last season.
Is Anthony Davis still a top 10 NBA player?
On the same show, Jalen Rose also briefly mentioned Anthony Davis’ ranking among the league’s best players:
“We just released an NBA Top 12 players list, and Anthony Davis wasn't on there. Now he's a top 10 talent, no doubt. But the thing that keeps him off of that list is ‘when healthy.’”
Just a couple of seasons ago, Anthony Davis was in discussions for the best player in the league. In ESPN’s 2022 “NBArank,” Davis was ranked 20th, behind big men Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Their reasoning was that “Davis missed 78 of the Lakers' 154 games the past two seasons because of various injuries.” If Davis can finally stay healthy, he could be in line for a redemption season, along with the Lakers.