DeMarcus Cousins isn’t buying the early championship buzz around the Lakers.
With LeBron James gone and Luka Doncic now the clear face of the franchise, Cousins used his spot on the Run It Back TV show to draw a hard line between star power and title contention. He’s high on Doncic’s ability to pile up numbers. He just doesn’t see a finished contender yet.
“Do I think this is a championship group? No.
I think they’re a scary team every single night. I think they can upset some teams this year, but as far as just being that high-level team, contending-type team, I just can’t call it right now.”
He doubled down on that view shortly after.
“I don’t see it. I think they got a lot of work to do, but I expect Luka to put up some incredible numbers. It could potentially be an MVP-type season for him, depending on how far he can really carry this group, but I can’t say they’re a better team without Bron.”
That skepticism lands in the middle of one of the biggest reshuffles in Lakers history. James ended his eight-year run with the club this summer and signed with the Philadelphia 76ers, leaving Doncic as the center of the team’s future.
Los Angeles has tried to patch the hole with a busy roster overhaul. The biggest move was landing Walker Kessler from the Utah Jazz in a sign-and-trade deal, a move that cost the Lakers two first-round picks and two first-round pick swaps before they locked him in on a $130 million contract.
The front office also brought in Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Ziaire Williams, and Matisse Thybulle, aiming to give Doncic and Austin Reaves a deeper, more balanced group around them.
Still, swapping out James is no small task. The four-time NBA champion helped the Lakers win the 2020 title and remained a major offensive piece in his final season with the team.
Doncic, meanwhile, keeps carrying the kind of load that makes this whole conversation possible. He’s coming off a huge season in which he averaged 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 8.3 assists, and he helped the Lakers finish 53-29. The team did steal a surprise first-round win without him after he was injured during the playoffs, but Oklahoma City swept them in the second round and made the gap to the West’s best impossible to ignore.
Kessler is supposed to help on the other end, especially with rim protection and rebounding. He’s still working his way back after an injury-hit season with the Jazz, though he did post 8.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks in two preseason games. The defensive presence showed up; the offense not so much.
There were some bright spots in the exhibition games as well. Grimes averaged 12.0 points, and Mamukelashvili put up 13.4 points per game during the preseason. Even so, the Lakers closed their exhibition slate at 2-3, which suggests the new pieces still need time to click.
JJ Redick is still publicly backing the group, saying he believes it can grow into a championship-level team. Doncic has also leaned into the leadership side of the job, bringing teammates together for an offseason gathering in Slovenia to help speed up chemistry.
For now, though, Cousins is looking at the roster and seeing a work in progress, not a finished contender. He believes Doncic can have an MVP-type season. He just doesn’t think that automatically makes this Lakers team a championship one.
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