With everything LeBron James has accomplished and how close he is to Rich Paul, you’d expect his agent to fully believe not only in LeBron but in the entire Lakers team. Yet that’s not where Rich stands right now.
Rich may just be staying objective, and that’s a fair approach. Still, it’s striking to hear him openly suggest that he doesn’t trust the Lakers to make an extended playoff run. In a recent interview, he made it clear that the Lakers are not contenders at the moment.
“I personally don’t think the Lakers are good enough to be contenders, not right now. I don’t think they have enough to get to WCF.”
Rich Paul says the Lakers are NOT contenders 👀
“I personally don’t think the Lakers are good enough to be contenders, not right now. I don’t think they have enough to get to WCF.”
(h/t @NBA__Courtside)pic.twitter.com/z4FQnFnmtb
— Fullcourtpass (@Fullcourtpass) December 9, 2025
It’s also a strange contrast to what the standings say. The Lakers are 17-6 and sitting second in the West, trailing only the Oklahoma City Thunder. The team hasn’t dropped any momentum and has gone 6-1 since LeBron returned to the lineup.
But this is also the same team that was ousted in the first round last season despite having a better regular-season record than the opposing team. There’s that caveat of not trusting the regular-season numbers too much, and that might explain Rich’s stance.
