The Lakers are in collapse
The title of the article may seem a little bit weird as the Lakers are the second most successful franchise in the history of the NBA. Although they won 16 titles, the last one came in 2010, and since then, they have never been again in the Finals. More than that, last season marked the fifth year in a row without the Lakers getting into the playoffs.
However, two years ago, Jeanie Buss, the Lakers owner, made a bold move, firing her brother and the general manager, Mitch Kupchak. Then, she hired Magic Johnson as president of basketball operations and Rob Pelinka as a GM. The fans were very excited and they thought that the Lakers will finally get back where they belong. Fast forward until now and the team is on the 10th place in the West with 7% chances to qualify into the playoff (per Basketball Reference). So what happened?
First of all, the Lakers gave away three great young players: D’Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson, and Larry Nance Jr. However, these moves were somehow necessary and I will explain why. As you probably remember, Russell had a huge scandal with Nick Young, who was a Laker at that time, so nobody in the team trusted him anymore. Therefore, it is hard to have such a player on your roster. More than that, they also gave Mozgov in that deal and they obtained Brook Lopez, who is better than Mozgov and a first round pick which turned out to be Kyle Kuzma. Right now, Kyle Kuzma is the team’s second scorer after LeBron James, so maybe he will turn out to be much better than D’Angelo Russell, who was named an all-star this season.
Then, by transferring away Clarkson and Nance Jr., the Lakers created some space in order to be able to attract a big free agent. And they did, as this summer LeBron James signed with the Californian franchise. So, of course, if we look at how Russell plays right now or at the games that Clarkson is having you can argue that these were bad moves. But how would the Lakers look without LeBron James and Kyle Kuzma?
Another questionable move that the Lakers made is that they drafted Lonzo Ball with the second pick in 2017. Instead of him, they could have drafted Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell or DeAaron Fox, who just scored 39 points on the Lakers. Even Kobe Bryant said that he doesn’t understand why the Lakers didn’t take Tatum instead of Lonzo Ball. I agree, that the young point-guard had a tough first season and that he doesn’t have a great shot, but I think that his talent is unquestionable. He has an amazing vision, he is very good at creating shots for his teammates and in the last games, he started to get to the basket more. So, in my opinion, Lonzo Ball needs two things: to be patient and eager to learn and to make his father shut up.
Therefore, I can say that Magic and Rob took good decisions in the last seasons, but I think that what happened this year is the problem. We can all agree that LeBron James is one of the greatest players in history so when he goes to another team, especially one that has a lot of young guys, it is hard for the others to get used with him. They need some time to create a chemistry and to start to understand how to play together so this was a reason why the Lakers struggled in the early season. Another thing that has hurt the Lakers is their lack of shooting. Nobody on that team can shoot consistently like JJ Reddick or Klay Thompson, and so on. Despite all of this, when the Lakers played the Warriors on the Christmas Day they were on the 4th place in the West.
It is not easy to find yourself in that place so we can affirm that the team had exceeded everybody’s expectations. But, then LeBron James got hurt and the young players needed to learn again how they should play without their superstar. This is an extremely hard thing to do so they lost a lot of games. Then the trade discussions came up and almost every Laker on the roster got included in the media talks. The rumors had a huge impact on the athletes, as they were constantly uncertain about their job place. After more than one month, LeBron James returned and as Tracy McGrady said, the guys had to learn again how to play together. So, basically, all of these things have impacted the way in which the Lakers are playing and left a big question mark.
Although all the previous arguments can be seen as responsible for the Lakers’ collapse, I think that another aspect is the most important. Let’s be serious, LeBron James managed to get into the playoff with a similar team but in the Eastern Conference. So, with a bunch of young players and some veterans, nobody really expected to become a force. Everybody knew that when the time will come, the Lakers will make the moves in order to attract another superstar. And here comes the problem – Magic and Pelinka seemed to be unable to get a star to come to the Lakers to play with LeBron. This comes as a shock, as Los Angeles was one of the most preferred destinations.
Until now there have been some free agents like Jeremy Lin, Enes Kanter, and Markief Morris and the Lakers didn’t manage to get any of them. Then, teams like the Pelicans or the Spurs in the summer didn’t want to answer Magic’s phone calls. Other GMs were calling Dell Dumps, the Pelicans’ GM, to ask him to don’t accept the Lakers’ offer. So, it seems like the Los Angeles Lakers became one of the most hated organizations in the NBA with nobody wishing to play there.
Therefore, in conclusion, I think that this is where the Lakers should try to improve. They must grow their young players in order to become stars or at least to gain some trade value and then they should try to become again one of the most beloved franchises in the league.
David Istrate, info@brainbasketball.net
