Austin Reaves Believes Lakers Can Win a Championship This Season

The Los Angeles Lakers remain in search of another championship since they last won one during the 2019-20 season. The Lakers are four years removed from that NBA Finals win, and only a season removed from their most recent appearance in the Western Conference Finals.

While the Lakers fell short of expectations this season — only qualifying to the playoffs through the NBA Play-In Tournament and then losing in the first round to the Denver Nuggets — they still feel they can compete for the championship next season.

After all, this team is not much different from the team that fell to the Nuggets during the Western Conference Finals in 2023. The Nuggets have gotten the best of the Lakers as of late, but Austin Reaves has felt that the Lakers had chances to win those games and dropped them.

“I like where we’re at,” Reaves said, via SB Nation’s Nicole Ganglani. “I think we have what we need to compete for a championship. You look back at the Denver series last year, I forgot the statistics but we led like 165 minutes to their like 59 minutes or something and we got beat 4-1, which we can’t really wrap our mind around.”

Of course, one of the biggest question marks surrounding the Lakers is their new head coach, JJ Redick. Redick was officially named the team’s new head coach in June, despite having zero prior experience coaching.

Redick has shown high basketball intelligence over the years as both a player and NBA broadcaster, but he will also have to translate this into coaching as he jumps straight into leading a team. Even with this change, Reaves sees no difference in the team’s ultimate goal.

“The goal for next year is to win a championship,” Reaves said. “That’s always the key. Individual accolades, they don’t mean anything unless you got team success. Since I’ve been in the NBA, that’s all I’ve wanted to do. Obviously going to the Western Conference Finals, getting a taste of being really closed just lights a fire under you to get back to that point. Obviously to take that next step and win a championship is always a goal.”

The Lakers kick off their chase for a title on Oct. 22 during their season opener against the Minnesota Timberwolves.