What’s the ceiling of the Lakers this season with Luka Dončić?

How far can the Lakers go now that they have Luka Dončić and LeBron James on the same team?

Now that the dust has settled on the NBA trade deadline and All-Star weekend is over, the Lakers are ready for the season's home stretch.

Thanks to a blockbuster deal to obtain Luka Dončić, the team is now in a far better position to win than when the season began.

According to the most recent odds from our friends at FanDuel, the Lakers currently have the sixth-best chance of winning the championship at +1800. That’s an enormous improvement from their odds before the trade deadline, which were at + 6500.

Obviously, the acquisition of Luka has catapulted the Lakers into relevance. Now, the idea of beating the duo of LeBron James and Dončić has bettors leaning towards Los Angeles having a shot at winning it all right now. This is why, in the most recent SB Nation Reacts poll, fans said the Lakers were title contenders.

Before this trade, L.A. was already a solid top-six team in the West. With head coach JJ Redick pushing all the right buttons, the idea of giving him Luka and adding him to this offense is thrilling.

Luka is fresh off an NBA Finals appearance and is averaging 27 points per game this year. If he can maintain that scoring as a Laker, he will lead the team in that category. Sure, Luka's addition will present some defensive challenges, but he can unleash the offense in ways that were unthinkable before his arrival.

Compared to the last few years when the Lakers had to play at a high level just to make the play-in, this season, they are already in a much better position this season.

The Lakers are currently fifth in the West, just a half-game behind the struggling Houston Rockets for fourth. They don’t need to improve much to earn home-court advantage in the playoffs. And avoiding the play-in should also be much easier for the Lakers, given that they are three games ahead of the seventh seed.

Oklahoma City pretty much has the top seed wrapped up with a 44-10 record that has them eight games ahead of Memphis. But with 30 games left, there is plenty of room to climb as high as the No. 2 seed as the Grizzlies are only three games ahead of Los Angeles.

Currently sitting at the third spot in the West is the Nuggets. A team that has been the Achilles heel of this franchise for two seasons now. This year, they easily beat the Lakers 127-102, but that was in November, long before the purple and gold turned over a good chunk of their roster.

With three head-to-head matchups left and L.A. behind by just two and a half games, they can finally overcome the monster that has been Denver and end ahead of them in the West.

Suddenly, the Lakers have become a legitimate contender and everyone is watching to see just how good this team will be, not only in the future but also right now.

The one thing we do know is that they are better today than they were at the start of the season. So long as Luka and LeBron remain healthy, they have a shot to win it all and will be a team no one wants to play this spring.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.