Lakers News: Insiders Omit LeBron James, Anthony Davis From Top 10 Players List
Your Los Angeles Lakers boast possibly the best superstar duo in the NBA but some analysts aren't willing to give the championship pair their rightful credit headed into this season.
Both forward LeBron James and center Anthony Davis checked in outside of the Ringer's top 10 player rankings before the season.
James enters his 21st season in the NBA with more concerns than ever but remains the 12th-best player in the league.
There’s also no way around the fact that LeBron now regularly misses significant time due to injury and that he realistically shouldn’t carry the kind of responsibility he once did. So much will still fall on James’s shoulders in ways that go above and beyond the expectations of other superstars—including how he props up and steers an entire organization. He’s simply found other ways to lead on the floor, and other ways to thrive.
Davis ranks ahead of his All-NBA teammate as the 11th-best player in the league with plenty of durability and consistency concerns that keep him out of the upper echelon of the league's talent.
Davis’s unrealized potential may always loom over his career—his inability to assume the day-to-day go-to guy responsibilities from LeBron, for instance, may ultimately limit the Lakers’ long-term ceiling. But even if injuries stalled out AD’s career tomorrow, he’d still be a Hall of Famer. Historically great may have to do.
Both are still among the game's greats but recent playoff failures have many questioning if they truly belong within the sport's inner circle.
It'll be up to them to prove the doubters wrong for their ultimate goal of another championship for LA; this time with a parade to boot.
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