THE LAKERS & THE SEVEN WHITE KNIGHTS

By Muntradamus

BEAST DOME NATION

Following the Lakers since my childhood, I have been blessed with greatness. Grew up with the glory Shaq/Kobe dynasty, saw Kobe turn into a legend. Was blessed with LeBron just being historic no matter the age, and always a chance for a Lakers championship. Take away a few dark years towards the end of Kobe’s career and shortly after, it has been nothing but sunshine mixed with disappoitment, thanks to Jokic. Now it is a new chapter with LeBron gone, and the Lakers are officially snowed in. I have not seen an all white team like this in a very long time, definitely the 90s.

While in theory for all the white guys out there watching the Lakers, it is entertaining because the dream of an all-white basketball team really is something of the past, now we will get to witness it in 2026-27. I remember when I wanted to be in the NBA when I was a kid, but then the reality of the unmatched athleticism compared to my credit card jump (you can slide a credit card under my feet with how high I jumped) quickly killed that dream. Collin Sexton is great and a very valuable piece to this puzzle, but in the end, it will be something else to watch pretty much four/five white guys on the court at the same time. For the record Grimes mom is white.

The problem with an all-white team and why you hardly/never see it these days is, white people do not play great defense. Sure Kessler can defend the rim, but that is mostly because he is a 7 foot giant. Luka and Reaves do not play strong defense at all, in fact, they play horrible defense. With two guards that cannot play defense, teams will be able to attack the Lakers however they want. Drive and Dish, Drive and Dunk, the Lakers will give up more points than any team in the NBA by far.

Luka and Reaves are going to be Fantasy Basketball dreams. The only chance the Lakers have of winning games is if those two can combine for 80 points. Kessler is not a dominant scoring option, Mamu is the most overrated slow motion big/wing, Grimes misses far more shots than he makes, Sexton is probably the third best scoring option. Lakers will give up a lot of points, and they will score some points. End of the day, they will lose a lot of games.

The Lakers are destined to be horrible for a long time unfortunately. Luka’s contract ends in 2028-29, Reaves in 2029-30. Seems like such a long time from now until those two are gone, but the truth is you cannot win meaningful basketball games if your two guards cannot play defense. Having both of these guys on the same team will result in losses. If you ask how come it worked with Luka and Kyrie with Mavs when they went to the Finals? Well, Gafford and Lively both are exceptional defensive players, PJ Washington can shoot. Gafford and Lively are better defenders than Kessler and Ayton. Mamu/Grimes wish they could shoot like PJ and jump like Derrick Jones.

Lakers could make the playoffs if they had one player added to this roster. LeBron James. We all know that is impossible but he is the perfect fit to this team. Sure his defense is not great, but at this point the Lakers are putting too much pressure on Luka and Reaves to play defense, and score points. One injury to either of them and the Lakers are a lottery team, if they both stay healthy, they probably still miss the playoffs. If Pelinka was not Kobe’s Agent, he would be working at Burger King. Do not forget, it was Magic Johnson who brought LeBron to LA to save this tanking dyansty. Pelinka just destroyed it from within.