LeBron will definitely bring the Lakers to the playoffs this season. The pride of the king will remain untarnished that every season he would enter the playoffs. It would be difficult to bring it to the finals though.

We just hope it will happen, they are out of the playoff picture right now and therefore Lebron needs to work harder.
He should be more aggressive as it will bring energy to the team, right now he is the captain of the team so his young teammates rely's on him.
If he will trust this teammates, good things happen, just like what happen against the Rockets.

High chances but not a guaranteed thing for Lebron to carry Lakers to playoffs but basing on their current performances there would be still some light that they can push through.

I think Lakers veterans are there for the season, they are not there for the long term, so if they could just get a superstar I am sure the young kids of that team will come off from the bench and the veterans like lance will be gone. They will not sign those veterans until they are sure that they will not be capable of getting any superstars.

If you look at the free agents this summer you will see that there are not many people Lakers could get, I mean there are some people who are good but won't make Lakers a championship team, I mean if they could get either Durant or Kawhi that is great but that is doubtful and won't probably happen they "may" get Kyrie but Kyrie getting back together with Lebron is unlikely as well.

Aside from Cousins that would help their center position aside there is no one left in that free agency that would make Lakers a championship caliber team. Hence I think free agency will not be the place where they will go for becoming that good, they will have to do trades in the end.

A big loss for the Golden State Warriors.
Even without Harden of the Rockets their role players seems to be doing good.
They are in hype. They did defense and offense and all are like excited to play.
The GSW though had a bad night. It is not like them. They are not pumped up.
Green got a strain injury at the 3rd by stepping on Cousins.
All in all Tucker, Gordon and CP3 did a great job and a hand of applause for Faried, he made a lot of difference for their game winner.

I don't know about the Rockets being the next champ. Maybe the Warriors are really struggling, yeah, they might not be the dominant team as we have seen them in the last 2-3 years but I think they can still pull it off in the Western conference and face a tough and physical East team so it makes it more interesting.

I woudn't be surprised in James Harden will win the MVP again this year. As you have said, he is putting a lot of works and his numbers are way about the rest.

I don't know though, but it looks like Houston hasn't forgot last year conference finals that's why when they face Golden State they're usually pump up and wanting to prove something. Good win for them.

Westbrook, Curry Giannis is really a good candidate as well as everyone is putting incredible stats this year. But I don't know, its a tough call this early though, it really boils down as what team really performs and how those players are helping their teams.

There are two candidates for MVP in OKC, not only Westbrook is doing well, his buddy Paul George is also helping him to carry the team to the top.
OKC is currently top 3 in the western conference standing and there's always a chance that they could end up no. 1 this season if they continue to improve. Meanwhile, in the East, although the rank are close but I believe they are pretty dominated by the Bucks.

This Lakers team is sooo black and white. Dudes won against rockets like its nobodies business and destroyed a team that almost beat golden state warriors last year on conference finals (and just beat them again last night) and now they have lost to pelicans without Anthony Davis.

I mean Lebron was playing as well, dude played 38 minutes at age 35 (or 34?) and had 27 points with 12 assists and 7 rebounds but it was not enough. Lakers are doing alright on offense now, they are not that bad but they really really need to step up their defense, its really not even remotely good enough to make it to playoffs let alone do something there.

I know they are not good enough to do anything but they honestly need to at least make the playoffs, Lebron can't afford missing playoffs in his career for a GOAT discussion, one miss of playoffs and he is out of the GOAT discussions.