Hall of Fame former Showtime Lakers great Michael Cooper, one of the best perimeter defenders in NBA history, knows a thing or two about quality basketball.
The 6-foot-7 swingman was an eight-time All-Defensive Teamer and the 1987 Defensive Player of the Year while winning five titles with LA.
His Lakers faced off against some all-time greats during the Lakers’ playoff battles against the Houston Rockets, Philadelphia 76ers, Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons.
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All this is to say, Cooper’s bullishness on his former team’s 2025-26 season outlook, as expressed during a recent “Vlad TV” interview, should be heeded.
“I’m always gonna say the Los Angeles Lakers,” Cooper said of his prediction for the next league champions. “I think the Lakers are going to win it until they can’t.”
Armed with five-time All-NBA First Team superstar guard Luka Doncic, aging-but-still-awesome 21-time All-NBA power forward LeBron James, future All-Star guard Austin Reaves, and new center Deandre Ayton, Los Angeles has looked surprisingly lethal thus far, even in a loaded Western Conference.
The Lakers’ big vulnerability, to this point, appears to be defending athletes — especially downhill guards. The addition of former three-time All-Defensive Teamer Marcus Smart, who remains solid even if he’s a bit diminished from his Boston Celtics-era prime, has helped with that somewhat.
At present, Los Angeles is 13-4 on the young season, good for the second seed in the West behind the 17-1 Oklahoma City Thunder and the 13-4 Denver Nuggets. And that’s with James having missed all but three of the Lakers’ 17 games thus far.
‘An Opportunity to Win’
“Obviously, things would have to go well,” Cooper cautioned. “Any injury is important to any team. If you can get there with 90 percent of your team intact — obviously, there’s going to be bumps and bruises, but if you can get there, you have an opportunity to win.”
The Thunder, meanwhile, have been entirely without All-NBA small forward Jalen Williams. But that hasn’t stopped the reigning champions from winning all but one game to carve out the most robust start of the 2025-26 season.
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is once again playing like an MVP frontrunner (he won last year and finished second in 2024, only behind the Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic), while big man Chet Holmgren is looking like an All-Star at last and wing Ajay Mitchell has emerged as the favorite to earn Most Improved Player honors. The Thunder’s defense has looked even more swarming and magnificent than it did last year.
“I think OKC is going to find out what it takes [to go back-to-back],” Cooper predicted.
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