The Finder With Tom Haberstroh

The Finder With Tom Haberstroh

⭐️ - Can LeBron carry the Lakers? - Tom's Title Tiers #24

With Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves suddenly injured, the Lakers are fading from contention

Tom Haberstroh's avatar
Tom Haberstroh
Apr 05, 2026
∙ Paid
(Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images)

Luka Doncic pulled up limp on Thursday night. Austin Reaves is now out for at least a month. Uh oh. Can the Lakers survive without them?

Welcome to another edition of Tom’s Title Tiers! A reminder: This is my subjective list based largely on objective data. This is not a pure, analytical ranking. You’re here because you want to know what I think, to get inside my brain a little bit. Consider this a weekly report of what I see on film; what I glean from the numbers; what I hear on the phone; what I read in the news; what I feel.

This week’s featured squad: the Los Angeles Lakers.

A reminder that teams are listed within each tier in alphabetical order, not in order of strength. Here’s a quick rundown of each tier:

Tom’s Title Tiers

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a complete team, no notes.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Just missing that one thing.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ One move away from being one move away.
⭐️⭐️ So much has to break right.
⭐️ Sooo you’re saying there’s a chance.

Can the Lakers hold onto a Title Tiers spot? Have the Denver Nuggets earned top dog status? Are the Magic toast?


⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is a complete team, no notes.


(Apologies for taking last week off. We are back to regularly-scheduled programming).

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