A year ago, the thought of the Lakers running it back a roster consisting of LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Rui Hachimura, Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell had fans excited.

What can Darvin Ham do with a full year with the same roster that reached the Western Conference Finals?

Instead of looking like a legacy franchise building off chemistry and cohesion, the Lakers resembled a startup that promised more than it could offer.

They remained a seventh seed, losing yet again to the Denver Nuggets in the postseason. But instead of the defeat happening in the Western Conference Finals, it was in the opening round.

The result wasn’t satisfactory and the Lakers relieved Darvin Ham after two seasons.

Since then, nothing else substantial has happened to push the Lakers toward contention. There was the potential landing of Klay Thompson before he chose to take his talents to Dallas, some DeMar DeRozan rumors and other could’ve would’ve should’ve scenarios. The core roster, however, remains unchanged. Is that core enough to actually come out of a brutal Western Conference?

It’s a question that feels silly to ask given the vibes of the offseason, but it’s the feeling LeBron James still had when he sat down with Dave McMenamin of ESPN for a recent interview.

“Of course,” James told ESPN when asked about the possibility of the Lakers contending again while he is still with the franchise. “Because we’ve done it before. We’ve done it before, and we still have two guys who commit every single day with myself and AD [Anthony Davis]. We commit to excellence and commit to win. And we feel like any situation, any given year, we can put ourselves in a position to be able to succeed. And we’re not that far off.

“We were one year removed from the Western Conference finals. Obviously, this year it didn’t go as well this past year. Didn’t go as well as we would like, but we’re not that far off.”

“And there’s so many teams in the league,” he said, “but we don’t see that we are that far off in the West.”

The beauty of being stuck in the middle is that you can argue you’re halfway to glory or midway to oblivion. As the seventh seed in a 15-team conference, that’s the reality for LeBron and the Lakers.

He sees a team that is only separated by three regular-season wins from the Western Conference champion Dallas Mavericks. Others see an aging star, a lack of wing shooting, a rookie coach and no impactful players added to the rotation.

One may roll their eyes at Lebron’s comments, but to his credit, he’s put his money where his mouth is this summer. He re-signed with the Lakers and took less than the max to keep the Lakers under the dreaded second apron.

He could’ve gone anywhere he wanted, but he never waivered from remaining in Los Angeles during what could very well be the final contract of his NBA career. However, even with the King back, it’s hard to consider the Lakers contenders unless we’re being very liberal with that phrasing. Sure, they could go on a run. Many teams can.

However, the default shouldn’t be what one can do but what one is likely to do. And with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Memphis Grizzlies, Dallas Mavericks and the San Antonio Spurs all getting better on paper, it’s hard to see a path toward the Lakers being frontrunners to come out of the West.

That’s to say nothing of teams like the Nuggets or Timberwolves, either. Both were contenders last season and both will have the expectation to be at the top once again this year.

Still, hope is what dies last and as long as LeBron is on your team and playing at an All-NBA level, you’ll have a shot. Add in that the team was 30-18 in 2024, a winning percentage of 62% which would’ve been good for top-four seeding in the West.

The Lakers were also still a formidable opponent when facing the league’s top talent last season. They had notable wins like beating the Boston Celtics on the road, winning the NBA In-Season Tournament, defeating the New Orleans Pelicans in the play-in and pushing the Denver Nuggets in every playoff game. The road to an 18th title will require the best version of LeBron and AD, the maturation of Reaves and Hachimura, a rookie coach pushing all the right buttons and a little bit of luck avoiding the injury bug.

LeBron is right. They were close to that result in Darvin Ham’s first year. Why not do even better with Redick? Has James fully become a Laker, exceptionalism and all? Maybe, but don’t call LeBron a dreamer; he’s not the only one.