The State of the LakeShow, Part 2 (Post-Trade-Deadline Edition)
The 2022 NBA Trade Deadline was yesterday, and the Lakers went out and got…no one.
It was another year of Lakers management not making moves, and despite his best efforts, general manager Rob Pelinka could not find a deal that was best for LA. “We were aggressive in a lot of conversations trying to improve the team — we always want to put this team in the best position to win a championship,” he said in a postgame press conference captured by Mike Trudell. “But ultimately we didn’t find a deal that had a net positive effect for the short term success of the team and the long term, and those are both things we consider.”
The Lakers were involved in several rumors leading up to the big day, connected to names such as Cam Reddish from the Knicks and John Wall from the Rockets. However, for one reason or another, both of those discussions fell through. Yahoo Sports’s Chris Haynes reported that the Rockets offered Wall for Westbrook and a future first-round pick, but the Lakers declined…because of that first-round pick. There were also discussions about Wall and Christian Wood for Westbrook and Talen Horton-Tucker, but those discussions did not bear fruit either.
So now, with a 26–30 record and the 9th spot in the West, the Lakers are looking to bounce back in other ways. Unfortunately, it won’t happen at the snap of a finger, especially with other issues that have come to light. From Frank Vogel seemingly losing the team to Russell Westbrook acting like a freshman on varsity, it’s enough to make even the diehards pull some hair out. The LakeShow’s recent struggles have made even LeBron realize they aren’t at the level they need to be at.
Their season has gone so poorly that Laker legends such as Magic Johnson and James Worthy have made their frustrations known.
There have been a multitude of factors that have led to the Lakers’ performance this season, but one of the main points that sticks out to me is how they’ve played the cards they were dealt. Every team has had to deal with injuries and players missing time due to COVID, but where most of them handled it really well, the Lakers handled it in the worst way possible. They’ve only been able to beat lottery teams and cannot step up against legitimate contenders. Again, their effort continues to be questioned, and it’s been the same story for weeks on end: they go down by double digits, mount a comeback late in the third or fourth quarter, go brain dead in crunch time, and lose the game by ten points or less. This repeated cycle of false hopes is enough to make this meme relevant again.
Finally, if there’s anyone to blame for this disappointing season, it should be spread among several key people. Vogel has been unable to set the team up for success with his questionable lineups at inopportune times and his inability to coach a largely offensive-minded team. Pelinka could have made a trade yesterday that put the Lakers on the right path, but wound up not doing so. LeBron and AD deserve some of the blame as well, first for pushing Rob to trade for Russ, and then okaying the signings of more 30+ year-olds than a YMCA rec league. As Rex Kaplan alluded to on my most recent podcast episode, you can’t win with a bunch of old guys; there should be a decent mix of youth in there as well.
Hopefully the Lakers can salvage their season, either through the buyout market, G-League call-ups or some increase in morale that translates to winning games. I said this before, and I’ll say it again: if we can survive a 17-win season, we can get through this too.
