Dillon Brooks isn’t buying the hype around the Lakers’ new-look roster.
The Phoenix Suns forward was asked on content creator Neon’s stream whether Los Angeles got better or worse after LeBron James’ departure, and Brooks didn’t exactly hand out a compliment.
“Oh, Lakers are sweet,” Brooks said. “They are so sweet. They’re about to get… If Luka [Doncic] don’t average 40, [laughs].”
That’s the kind of line that lands fast and lingers even longer, especially with a Lakers roster that looks very different after a busy offseason. Los Angeles added Walker Kessler, Quentin Grimes, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Collin Sexton, Kevon Looney, Ziaire Williams, and Matisse Thybulle. The team also brought Austin Reaves back on a four-year, $180 million deal and picked up the rights to Cameron Carr on draft night.
With James gone, Doncic is the face of the next chapter in Los Angeles, and the Lakers are clearly betting big on his offensive engine. Brooks, though, is pointing straight at the pressure that comes with it. He thinks Doncic will need to carry even more of the load next season if the Lakers are going to stay in the mix.
The fit offensively is easy to see. Doncic and Reaves should give the Lakers one of the league’s best scoring pairings, and both would be expected to clear 25 points a night.
Doncic’s numbers from 2025-26 only underline why he’s the centerpiece: 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, 8.3 assists, 1.6 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game. He also won the scoring title.
Defense is where the questions start stacking up. The Lakers did add a defensive anchor in Kessler through a sign-and-trade with the Utah Jazz, but the expectation is still that this group will have real problems on that end. Doncic and Reaves aren’t strong defenders, and while Doncic showed improvement at times last season, a backcourt rankings conversation would still leave Los Angeles near the bottom rather than the top.
Brooks has reason to feel comfortable talking, too. He put up strong numbers against the Lakers last season, averaging 22.0 points on 56.3% shooting in those matchups, and the Suns won the season series 3-2. In one of those wins, Brooks taunted James and trolled Doncic.
That history makes his latest jab feel less like a throwaway and more like a challenge. The Lakers will hear it, and Doncic is the type who can turn that kind of noise into a scoring binge. He already isn’t Suns star Devin Booker’s biggest fan, either, so next season’s meetings could get loud in a hurry.
Inside the Lakers’ own building, the outlook isn’t all sunshine and certainty. Team insider Jovan Buha reported there was acknowledgment that the roster may have taken a step back after losing James and some key role players, including Marcus Smart, Rui Hachimura, and Luke Kennard. The message, though, is that the front office is thinking beyond just this season.
There’s still optimism about what this group can do with the ball. The offense should be dangerous, maybe even one of the best in the NBA. But the bigger question hangs over everything: can the Lakers defend well enough to hang with the San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder?
The doubters aren’t exactly lining up to give them the benefit of the doubt. The Ringer’s Zach Lowe believes the Lakers have next to no chance of beating the Spurs or Thunder in a playoff series for the next couple of years. The Lakers would obviously prefer to prove that wrong, but on paper, the skepticism is easy to understand.
In Other News...
Lakers Face A Costly Roster-Building Dilemma Around Their Next Starter
The Lakers are weighing a summer addition with one eye already on next summer, trying to improve the roster now without closing the door on the non-taxpayer mid-level exception later. That means the front office is looking at the first apron as more than a line on the salary sheet. It is a constraint that could shape who ends up in purple and gold, and how aggressive the team can be when it tries to fill out the rotation around its core.
Names already in the mix reflect the balancing act: Jonathan Kuminga, Cam Johnson and P.J. Washington are all possible targets, but getting any of them would likely require careful salary management. Jarred Vanderbilt and Jake LaRavia are among the players who could be included going out to make the math work, while other contract decisions, including Collin Sextons, could also affect how much room the Lakers really have to maneuver. [Read more 🡒]
Luka Doncic Is Sending Lakers Fans A Takeover Season Message
Luka Doncic has quickly become the center of the Lakers plans since signing his $165 million extension last August, and his first full season in Los Angeles gave plenty of reason for optimism before a Grade 2 hamstring strain in April slowed him down. With LeBron James gone, the Lakers are clearly looking at Doncic as the player who will set the tone for what comes next, and every offseason detail around him now carries extra weight.
Doncic has already spent part of the summer putting in work with a team mini-camp in Slovenia, a small but meaningful sign that he is treating this stretch like the start of something bigger. He has also been seen wearing a headband during workouts, another cue that he is leaning into a more serious prep mode as the Lakers try to build around him and push into a new era. [Read more 🡒]
Shaq Just Reignited A Tough Lakers Debate About LeBron And Respect
Shaquille ONeal has never been shy about weighing in on the Lakers, and his latest comments put a familiar issue back in the spotlight: how the franchise treats its biggest stars once the relationship starts to fray. Speaking in defense of LeBron James after his departure from Los Angeles, ONeal drew on his own exit from the team and the feeling of leaving with a fan base that no longer felt fully on his side.
ONeal also framed the conversation around what James meant to the Lakers during his run there, arguing that the criticism has gone too far compared with the value he brought to the team. And while the debate over respect can get loud fast, ONeal added a different kind of parting thought by predicting James will finish with 53,000 career points, a mark he will stand untouched. [Read more 🡒]