The Lakers are spending part of their preseason in Slovenia, where Luka Doncic is hosting a mini-training camp and team-building trip as Los Angeles tries to get a jump on a season that looks very different from the one before it.
That urgency makes sense. With LeBron James gone, the Lakers are heading into a new era built around Doncic and Austin Reaves, who will be asked to carry even more of the load. The two have already shown they can work together despite both needing the ball plenty, and the Lakers are expected to add Walker Kessler, Jake LaRavia, and Quentin Grimes into the starting mix.
Even with that kind of lineup, ESPN’s league experts are not treating Los Angeles like a serious West favorite. In a poll on the likely winner of the Western Conference, the Lakers drew just two votes. The Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs were the runaway choices, collecting 88 votes and 74 votes, respectively.
“It will be surprising if there isn't a rematch of last season's West Finals, a seven-game battle won by the Spurs that seemed like the first chapter of the NBA's next epic rivalry. The Thunder (60.5) and Spurs (59.5) have by far the conference's highest over/unders for projected wins, according to DraftKings,” wrote ESPN's Tim MacMahon.
MacMahon also pointed to the Minnesota Timberwolves as a team worth watching. They received nine votes, and he highlighted the arrival of LaMelo Ball, saying the Timberwolves now have “arguably the league's most talented backcourt” alongside Anthony Edwards.
The Thunder and Spurs also have the benefit of continuity. Oklahoma City kept its core intact and added Aday Mara in the draft, while San Antonio stayed steady and brought in Tobias Harris.
Los Angeles, meanwhile, is trying to build on what it did last season. The Lakers went 53-29, their highest win total since 2010-2011. They opened the playoffs with a strong first-round win over the Houston Rockets even without Doncic, who was sidelined by a hamstring injury, before getting swept by the Thunder in the second round.
The Lakers have not ruled the West since their 2019-2020 title run.
In Other News...
Thunder's New Youth Push Put Brooks Barnhizer On The Brink
The Thunder kept leaning into youth this offseason, holding onto all three of their 2026 NBA Draft picks in Aday Mara, Bennett Stirtz and Otega Oweh while also adding another young name in undrafted free agent Josh Dix. Even with some offseason departures, Oklahoma City has continued to stockpile developmental options, a familiar approach for a team that has made roster flexibility and long-term upside part of its identity.
For Brooks Barnhizer, though, that same depth has made the margins tighter. The two-way player now finds himself in a crowded fight for one of the Thunders developmental spots, with Oweh and Dix both arriving as legitimate challengers. In a summer defined by opportunity for young players, Barnhizer is suddenly in the kind of position where every roster decision matters a little more than it did a few months ago. [Read more 🡒]
Cason Wallace Is Giving Thunder Fans A Reason To Dream Bigger
The Thunders rise has already pushed expectations to a different level, and Cason Wallace looks like one of the reasons those expectations keep climbing. Oklahoma City is headed into the 2026-27 season with title ambitions that no longer feel far-fetched, and Wallace is positioned to benefit from the changing shape of the roster. With more room opening up around him, his role should expand, and the path is there for him to matter more on the offensive end than he has so far.
What makes that especially intriguing is how much smoother his game has looked this summer. Wallace has shown real progress handling the ball and getting to his pull-up shot in recent open gym runs, a sign that he is not just filling a lane but trying to widen it. If the rotation keeps shifting the way it appears likely to, he may be asked to do even more than fans once expected, and that is the kind of development that can quietly change the ceiling for a contender. [Read more 🡒]
Thunder Face A Costly Young Core Decision That Could Shape Their Window
As Oklahoma Citys roster bill keeps climbing around its core, the Thunder are already feeling the strain of having too much young talent and not enough financial flexibility to keep everyone together. Key players have moved onto maximum contract extensions, and the front office has been forced to make uncomfortable calls on rotation pieces just to keep the books manageable. Now the next wave of decisions is arriving, with young contributors like McCain, Wallace and Mitchell all moving toward the point where the organization has to decide who fits into the long-term plan.
Mitchell, in particular, stands at the center of that conversation because his rise has changed the way he is viewed inside the roster math. Oklahoma City is trying to preserve a window that looks wide open, but the challenge is that every promising development eventually turns into a contract problem. The Thunder cant keep everybody, and the next move will say plenty about which young player they believe is essential to the teams future. [Read more 🡒]