Charles Barkley Predicts Lakers Will Outperform Expectations After LeBron's Exit to Philadelphia

Charles Barkley thinks everybody's sleeping on the Los Angeles Lakers.

On The Bill Simmons Podcast, the Hall of Famer said the retooled roster general manager Rob Pelinka built around Luka Dončić could be just as good as the Dallas Mavericks team that reached the NBA Finals with Dončić and Kyrie Irving. "This team is probably better; this team is probably just as good as that team," Barkley said.

That's a bold call given how much turned over in Los Angeles this offseason. LeBron James, who spent eight seasons with the franchise, told the team in June he'd be moving on. According to Sports Illustrated, James signed with the Philadelphia 76ers, joining a roster that also added former Finals MVP Jaylen Brown in a trade with the Boston Celtics.

Pelinka didn't stop with James. The Lakers wiped out the starting five that won a playoff series last season and rebuilt around Dončić's stated priority: getting him a big man. That request landed Walker Kessler via sign-and-trade, according to Yahoo Sports, plus a wave of depth additions including Kevon Looney, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Colin Sexton, Quentin Grimes and Matisse Thybulle, along with rookie Cameron Carr out of the draft.

Before any of that, Pelinka locked up Austin Reaves with a four-year, $185 million extension that includes a player option on the final year, tying him to Dončić for at least the next three seasons.

Dončić has taken on a bigger leadership role since James left, and it showed over the summer. The Lakers flew the team to Dončić's home country of Slovenia for a minicamp that included team dinners and group outings, according to Yahoo Sports. Training camp is scheduled to open September 29.

Barkley isn't the only Lakers-connected voice feeling good about it. Derek Fisher, speaking on 97.1 The Fan LA, said James's departure won't matter as much as people think, according to Sports Illustrated.

Not everyone's buying it. Byron Scott, the three-time champion who played alongside Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy, told Sports Illustrated he expects the Lakers' defense to struggle next season, despite the Kessler addition giving them more size in the paint than they had a year ago.

ESPN's NBA insiders are even more pessimistic. In the network's 2026-27 Summer Forecast, the Lakers received just two points in the Western Conference finals vote, meaning only two voters gave them a third-place finish, according to Lake Show Life. The Oklahoma City Thunder collected 88 votes and the San Antonio Spurs got 74, with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets all finishing ahead of Los Angeles as well. The same panel projected the Lakers to go 45-37, finish sixth in the West, and named them the team most likely to disappoint this season.

The case for skepticism isn't unreasonable. The West is loaded. Minnesota just added Jonathan Kuminga on top of an already strong roster, and both Oklahoma City and San Antonio are considered legitimate title contenders. A team that just lost its entire starting five and a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and is leaning on a rebuilt bench of role players, has real questions to answer, particularly on defense, where Scott's concerns track with what ESPN's voters are projecting.

Both predictions are just that: predictions. Barkley's take rests on Dončić and Reaves replicating a Finals run with a supporting cast that's mostly new. ESPN's forecast rests on projections that assume the West's other contenders stay healthy and the Lakers' new pieces need time to gel. Neither has been tested by an actual game.

Training camp opens September 29, when the Lakers begin in El Segundo and Dončić gets his first look at whether the roster Pelinka built around him can hold up against Oklahoma City, San Antonio and the rest of a conference nobody expects to slow down.