The Los Angeles Lakers are a good basketball team. There is no doubt about that. Are they a great one?

That is the question that will need answering in the second half of the 2024-25 NBA season for the Lakers.

With Los Angeles retooling on the fly, after their stunning acquisition of Luka Doncic before the NBA trade deadline, the current team will need to overcome a lot of sizeable yellow flags if they want to make a deep run in this year’s NBA Playoffs.

Ultimately, the hopes of a deep playoff run may be exclusively tied to whether Doncic and LeBron James look like the best players on the court for the majority of their contests come April, May, and perhaps June.

Get the backpacks ready for Doncic and James

The Lakers’ issues in the frontcourt are so well known that someone’s grandma who occasionally flips through the channels on her television set is probably aware of them.

That conversation has been done to death. Be that as it may, their issues at the center spot are not going away and can play a factor into holding this team back for the remainder of the season.

This current Lakers roster is not particularly built to withstand injuries either.

This was evident in their disappointing result against the Utah Jazz before the NBA All-Star break. An injury to Jaxson Hayes, plus the absence of Gabe Vincent and Dorian Finney-Smith, turned what should have been an easy win into a concerning loss.

All that being said, the Lakers are equipped with two elite playoff risers for this year’s postseason: James and Doncic.

A huge part of the legacy and mystique around LeBron has always been his ability to carry lackluster rosters way further in the playoffs than they have any business being.

There should be valid questions about the capacity to which James can still do that, considering he is 40 years old, but it is notable that there was seemingly a switch that was still flipped during last year’s postseason.

Despite the first-round exit against the Denver Nuggets, the Lakers superstar had a strong five-game outing in that series. James averaged 27.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, 8.8 assists, 2.4 steals, and 1.0 block while playing 40.8 minutes per game.

If Father Time leaves LeBron gasping for air a little more than usual this season, there is some comfort in knowing Luka’s history of elite playoff performances.

During his postseason career, Doncic has averaged 30.9 points, 9.4 rebounds, 8.0 assists, and 1.7 steals per game.

The former Dallas Mavericks superstar was responsible for elevating his old team on multiple occasions to stages that one could easily argue were above the pay grade of that roster.

The main instances being referred to are the 2022 Western Conference Finals appearance and last year’s NBA Finals berth.

Of the two superstars, Doncic will face the higher pressure to wear the backpack and be responsible for a sustained run in the NBA Playoffs, due to his younger age and the general belief that his positioning among the game’s best exceed that of James at this point.

However, both LeBron and Luka will need to play out of their minds this spring to ensure the Lakers can start thinking about banner number 18 in Los Angeles.