1. Los Angeles Lakers
It would be an injustice if the Los Angeles Lakers weren’t ranked No. 1 in our first NBA Power Rankings of the 2020-21 season. The Lakers return LeBron James and Anthony Davis and did their job to get younger and (somewhat) deeper during the offseason at the draft and free agency.
The addition of Dennis Schroder will help them in the backcourt, along with the defensive capabilities of Wes Matthews. They replace JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard with Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell. The Lakers improved while many other teams in the Western Conference took a step back.
The scary part about this season is that there’s a case to be made that the Lakers will be a better team than they were last season. Coming off a championship, the fact that the Lakers are better than last season should send shockwaves across the conference. This is a team that could go wire-to-wire from the regular season to the champions as the top team in the power rankings.