The new NBA schedule is here and the Los Angeles Lakers are undoubtedly jumping for joy.
Houston Rockets v Los Angeles Lakers | Ric Tapia/GettyImages
The Los Angeles Lakers have been afforded the luxury of time. The NBA released the full schedule for the 2025-26 season. One thing that immediately stands out for the Lakers is just how easy the beginning of the season will be.
Luka Doncic and company will have plenty of things to figure out about how this team functions to start the new year. New arrivals will need to get acclimated. Roles and a fresh pecking order must be put into place. JJ Redick will have his work cut out for him in figuring out how to best utilize the roster.Luckily for everyone involved, the first 15 games of the season will afford the Lakers a prime opportunity to experiment, adjust, and find out what works. The competition in the early get-go is not particularly daunting.
Four of those 15 games stick out as genuine challenges: Oct. 21 versus the Golden State Warriors, Oct. 24 versus the Minnesota Timberwolves, Oct. 29 at Minnesota, and Nov. 12 on the road against Oklahoma City Thunder. The rest of it gives the Lakers a lot of winnable games.
The Lakers will start the year with eight of their first 15 games being against teams who missed the NBA Playoffs in 2024-25. Even some of their matchups against playoff teams in that stretch are against squads who should be comfortably inferior to Los Angeles.
Some of those include the Miami Heat, Memphis Grizzlies, and Milwaukee Bucks. Those are all mediocre units who lack the ability to send chills down the spine when seeing them on the schedule.
Doncic will get an opportunity to ramp up early with his new NBA body. The Lakers superstar point guard can also firmly embrace his role as the head of an offense that will finally get an opportunity in training camp to mold around him.
LeBron James may be properly convinced that his current team is indeed a contender after a hot start. That should quiet the murmurings about James’ potential exit right off the bat.
Deandre Ayton can figure out how to best operate as a starting center around this group. Redick can figure out if Marcus Smart or Rui Hachimura is his fifth starter. The opportunity to get properly settled will be there for all members of the Lakers.
The NBA may have tipped their hand here. They clearly want the Lakers’ success in 2025-26 just as much as the organization does itself, because Los Angeles is being given grace right from the beginning to figure out how to be a contender.