The Los Angeles Lakers are tied for the best record in the NBA at 17-3 heading into Monday night’s action and Michael Malone of the Denver Nuggets believes that it is LeBron James that is driving the team’s early season success more than anything else:

When asked by Harrison Wind of DNVR Sports if he was surprised by the Lakers early success, Malone responded with glowing praise for James: “When LeBron James is involved, I'm never surprised… When you put two of the top three players in the world on the same team, and the best player in the world is LeBron James, who makes everybody better.”

Clearly, Malone believes King James to be the best player in the game right now, and he certainly has a strong case as the 34-year-old James is leading the NBA in assists per game (10.9, a career-high for the legend) and total assists (217).

The Lakers are riding a stifling defensive unit, led by James’s new teammate Anthony Davis and former MVP candidate Dwight Howard, who has provided sparkling defensive effort off the bench after refusing for years to embrace a diminished role – often to the detriment of his current team.

With a strong core of James and Davis and solid role players such as Howard, JaVale McGee, Danny Green, Avery Bradley, Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and others, the Lakers look to be one of the most threatening squads in the NBA.

Even opposing head coaches, like Malone, know just how fearsome that team will be come playoff time.