LeBron James, A+ student

Part 3 of a TrueHoop series on LeBron James

After trading for Anthony Davis, the Lakers are darn close to title favorites. Vegas loves them, David Thorpe likes them even more than that. I get it. To me, LeBron is clearly the best basketball player of all time, and Anthony Davis is likely—this year, because of their relative ages—to be even better than LeBron. On top of that, they did better than expected in filling out the roster. There's a chance Kyle Kuzma, Danny Green, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Jared Dudley, and some of the younger players will come together in a meaningful way. 

What I can't pretend, though, is that every player is equally likely to be part of a roster that congeals into more than the sum of its parts. The Lakers are making a massive bet on lesser players blossoming at the same exact time we are learning that LeBron is a very persnickety teammate. He carries disdain visibly and often. Few meet his high standards. In ways obvious and subtle, temporary and permanent, he has bailed on the majority of the roster…