The Lakers are all but out of the playoff race in the Western Conference, sitting six games out of the 8-seed with 18 games to go. Barring an all-time rally from L.A., LeBron James’ consecutive playoff appearance streak will end at 13 seasons and the Lakers will enter this offseason with a lot of questions to answer.
The biggest one is how will Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka upgrade the roster to make them not just a playoff team, but a legitimate contender in the West. Based off what we heard of the Pelicans’ interest ahead of the trade deadline, trading for Anthony Davis seems like an uphill battle, so it’ll be up to them to sell a top free agent on joining LeBron and company. Given how much they struggled to land a secondary star this past summer, that is far from a guarantee.
What’s most interesting is what their Plan B is, should the very top free agents like Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler, and others choose to sign elsewhere. Last year, they didn’t execute that well, as nearly every veteran signing outside of LeBron last summer has been a net negative for the Lakers.
LeBron seems to understand that. He was asked about why he feels inexperience has been an issue for the Lakers, and indicated that the young guys have been asked to do too much.
Asked LeBron what exactly he means when he says inexperience has been a problem for the Lakers. Found this telling: "You have 4 guys in our top 8 rotation that you have to really rely on and it’s unfair to them to ask for so much when they’re in their second or third year."
— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) March 6, 2019
Some have read this as a critique of the young guys, but it seems to be more of James lamenting the fact that the veterans around him haven’t been able to carry the load they were supposed to, leaving it to the young guys to pick up the slack, which is tough to do. Seeing as how players like Rajon Rondo, JaVale McGee, and Lance Stephenson were brought in due to their leadership and knowledge of what it takes to compete for a title, that’s put quite the burden on guys like Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, Brandon Ingram, and Kyle Kuzma.
This summer, Johnson and Pelinka have to address that inequity between veterans and young guys. Even if they can’t bring in the elite free agents, they have to do a better job selecting veterans to fill out the roster that can actually help rather than be detrimental to the team.
