Robert Horry Reveals Harsh Reality Facing Luka Doncic's Lakers

The seven-time NBA champion explained why the Los Angeles Lakers must take a different approach if they want to contend for titles again.

Feb 4, 2025; El Segundo, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka introduced guard Luka Doncic at UCLA Health Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images | Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Lakers have a tall task ahead of them, quite literally. The storied franchise, with 17 championship banners hanging in Crypto.com Arena, will have to build its roster around superstar Luka Doncic, aiming to compete with seven-footer Victor Wembanyama and the up-and-coming San Antonio Spurs.

If teams around the league aren’t building their rosters to try to figure out how to take down Wembanyama’s young Spurs squad and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Oklahoma City Thunder, they’ll be in for a rude awakening, as there’s a good chance San Antonio and Oklahoma City will be the cream of the crop in the NBA for quite some time with the French superstar leading the way.

Robert Horry Urges Lakers to Build to Beat the West’s Elite

Seven-time NBA champion and Lakers legend Robert Horry recently shared his thoughts on what his former team should do to be a perennial title contender in the Western Conference moving forward during an appearance on ESPN LA Radio.

“They gotta build to beat OKC, they gotta build to beat San Antonio because that’s what good teams do,” Horry said. “You realize who you are and you look at the team’s who’s out there dominating and you build your team to try to beat them. So hopefully the Lakers can find something out there, because they’re gonna be depleted. So many free agents and who knows what’s going on with LeBron so they gonna have to find a way to beat those two big dogs.”

That’s a daunting challenge, to say the least, for the Lakers, especially if they aim to do it organically in the same way that the Spurs and Thunder built their squads. Yes, there are some players that the team traded for, like Gilgeous-Alexander, Alex Caruso and De’Aaron Fox, but for the most part, those teams were built through the draft.

The Spurs struck gold in the draft, bringing in Wembanyama, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper in three consecutive years. They also drafted Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell. Oklahoma City drafted well with Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, Cason Wallace, Jaylin Williams and Aaron Wiggins while also signing Lu Dort as an undrafted rookie. 

Unfortunately for the Lakers, the team has relied on trades to be successful over the years, aside from signing LeBron James in NBA free agency in 2018 and signing Austin Reaves as an undrafted free agent in 2021. They traded for Anthony Davis and Doncic, and if they can pull it off, they’ll trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo this summer.

At this point, the Lakers may be forced to upgrade their roster through trades and free agency because they’ll want to capitalize on Doncic’s prime. 

It’ll be interesting to see how the revamped front office under longtime general manager Rob Pelinka can make moves to level up as quickly as possible. The deep pockets of new team owner Mark Walter will definitely help the situation, but it remains to be seen how things come together this summer, as it will be tough to catch up to the West’s elite class in one offseason.

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