The Los Angeles Lakers won their 17th championship in franchise history in 2019-20 then proceeded to immediately break up the roster after the season. Danny Green, Dwight Howard, JaVale McGee and Rajon Rondo were all key contributors during their title run, but not retained the following season.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who started all 21 postseason games for the Lakers in the bubble, recently claimed that LeBron James would have six titles — ending the greatest of all-time debate — if the championship core was retained.
“That team, we had a lot of moments where everything just clicked for us,” Kentavious Caldwell-Pope claimed on ‘Above The Rim with DH 12’. “Off the court, on the court, inviting to each other’s houses, we were just hanging out with each other. Those were my brothers, I spent more time with my team than my family… I think if we kept that team together, we would’ve run off two more… There would be no more GOAT talk, that would’ve put [LeBron] at six.”
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Caldwell-Pope is not the only member of the 2020 Lakers that believes they would have continued winning. Howard took to social media after Los Angeles was bounced from the postseason in 2024 to claim that Los Angeles would have three-peated if they did not split up the roster.
Meanwhile, Howard, Quinn Cook and DeMarcus Cousins all previously spoke about the chemistry on the Lakers roster that year. While Caldwell-Pope’s comments are a hypothetical, winning two more titles would certainly have helped James’ case when it comes to greatest of all-time debates.
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