Rich Paul says the Lakers don't have enough to win right now.

Is he right?

He says they can't even get to the Western Conference finals. And if so, what do they need to do? Plus, what does this mean for LeBron that his future in L.A.? I'm Trevor Lane. This is thelakersnation.com YouTube channel. Hit that subscribe button. Turn on those notifications. Let's take a look at this. Rich Paul, Max Kellerman, their new podcast, talking about the

Lakers and where they currently stand.

Also, a suggestion about somebody becoming a sixth man for L.A.

Let's take a listen.

Lucas Pick and Roll partner and not do too much.

Well, that's not on him.

I mean, sitting in the corner is not going to do much but yeah i think you know in order like i personally don't think the lakers are good enough to be

contenders right now not right now when you say contenders what do you mean i don't think they have enough to get to the western

conference farm i don't think they have enough to get to really contend from that perspective

so so okay c isn't a class by themselves very much they won a million games last year they

won the title they have one loss and what 23 in one one now? I can't keep up counting.

Right.

So it's crazy.

They're really good.

And I always thought even last year, it's like, wait, they're this good and they're going to get Chet Holmgren at a certain point. Like, that's a lot, right? That's a lot. And here they are. They're rolling. Now they're confident because they just won the championship. they're maturing, they're getting better.

So, okay, put them aside for a second.

You think the Lakers don't fit in with the rest of the pack?

They got the championship. They're maturing. They're getting better. So, okay, put them aside for a second.

You think the Lakers don't fit in with the rest of the pack? They got the second best record in the conference. Yeah, but we've seen that before. It doesn't mean anything. I think when you... Okay, so Rich Paul is saying it doesn't mean anything that the Lakers have the second best record in the conference. and that's exactly where they are right now as we stand. Today, the Lakers are the number two seed in the West. They are five and a half games back of the Thunder who are 23 and 1, which is absolutely absurd. But let's face it, if you take any of the 29 other teams around the NBA and you say, is this team good enough to beat the Thunder? The answer is no, because the thunder are beating everybody by a lot. They're cruising right now through the season. If that is the standard, then every team in the NBA falls short. Everyone does. You can say every team is not a contender if the standard is OKC. Now, I don't think that's the point that Rich Paul is making here, but just saying,

if that's the standard that you're going to hold the Lakers to, then every single team in the league. I don't care if it's Denver, Houston, New York, Detroit, doesn't matter. Every team falls short. But do the Lakers, because he's going to make the argument here that the Lakers are not in the same class as the Nuggets and the Rockets,

...