The Lakers are a mess. At 9-10, they keep losing basketball games. LeBron James is in and out of the lineup due to injuries and a suspension, Russell Westbrook is a weird fit, the minimum guys are not playing well, and Anthony Davis has moments where he disappears during the game. The defense, which was the best part of their team the past 2 seasons, is bad, at 20th in the NBA. They got blown out in Boston, squeaked by a bad Pistons team after Detroit missed just about every shot in the 4th quarter, and lost to a Knicks team that fell apart in the 3rd quarter again. It is a mess and a month into the season, this might be who they are.
The Russell Westbrook trade made no sense from the moment it was made. To trade 3 key bench players on a team that already lacked depth and a first round pick for a player who does not space the floor for your best player is interesting. Westbrook played a great game last night, scoring 31 points, grabbing 13 rebounds, and dishing out 10 assists in New York. However, they still lost to a team that has been hovering around .500 all season, and has disappointed in their own right. Anthony Davis is averaging 24 and 10 and is having a season where at points you think ‘wow this guy is so damn good’ and at other times ‘is AD even in the game right now?’ This was put on display last Friday night when the Lakers were in Boston visiting the Celtics. Davis had 15 first quarter points and was making shots that were ridiculous. Then from quarters 2 through 4 he disappeared scoring just 16 points the remainder of the game as Jayson Tatum dominated the Lakers scoring 34 points in the final 3 quarters. The Celtics won the game 130-108 and outscored the Lakers 100-70 in the final 3 quarters, in a game that has been a microcosm of their season.
The Lakers roster is not good. There is no way around that. DeAndre Jordan, Dwight Howard, Avery Bradley, Kent Bazemore, and Rajon Rondo have been bad, and that is just the start. This offseason the team lost Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Dennis Schröder, and Alex Caruso in the offseason, all of which have had really good seasons with their new teams. Yes, the Lakers disappointed last season due to injuries but this team has not had the same injuries as Anthony Davis has played in every game this season. LeBron has missed a ton of time but part of the reason (or even most of the reason) the Lakers traded all that stuff for Russell Westbrook was to take some of the regular season pressure off of James, and that has not happened. Los Angeles is 4-7 in games LeBron has missed this season. They have a ton of players who cannot play any defense, like Carmelo Anthony and Malik Monk. The bigs have been bad, which DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard were both bad last season, so that should not come as a surprise. Avery Bradley and Rajon Rondo have also been disappointments, but those are 2 players who are also coming off of bad seasons, not to mention all 4 players I just mentioned are over (or will be in a few days) 31 years old and past their primes. I expect the same out of Trevor Ariza who was horrible for the Heat last season. They are old, they play no defense, and they don’t score enough, the Lakers are hovering around .500, and by the looks of it, they might stay there throughout the season.
The Lakers need LeBron James to do 2 things. First he needs to stay healthy, so far this season he has failed that test. The second is he needs to play like MVP LeBron, that is TBD. However, this is not on LeBron, drafted with the first pick in the 2003 draft, James is one of 2 players left in the NBA from that draft, the other is Carmelo Anthony, who is a sharpshooter at this point in his career, and Dwight Howard, drafted the year after LeBron, is a bench big who does not look very good. What LeBron has done for 18 NBA seasons is unprecedented, he is 3rd all-time in minutes played, eventually your body is going to wear down, which it seems to have over the past couple seasons with the Lakers. He is 36 years old and will turn 37 at the end of December. Father time catches everybody, especially people who have relied on their athleticism for the majority of their career, and LeBron James looks to be no exception.
The Lakers have been a disaster. They are playing horrific basketball and frankly they have a bad roster. There is a lot of time for them to fix their issues and that is a good thing because right now for the Lakers to fix their problems it could take a long time. They are a mess on offense and they play bad defense, which is never a good mixture for a team. The Lakers look to bounce back against the Pacers as we head into Thanksgiving and they wrap up their road trip.
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