It’s been an exceedingly strange few weeks for the Los Angeles Lakers, as the team appeared to be all-in on acquiring Anthony Davis before the NBA trade deadline and came up short. This sort of thing, as always, led to rumors surrounding the squad that led to the futures of a number of players getting called into question. Oh, and while that was going on, the team got absolutely annihilated by the Indiana Pacers in the worst loss of LeBron James’ NBA career.
Perhaps Los Angeles got back on track with its thrilling win in Boston on Thursday night, but Magic Johnson does not want to take any chances. According to Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times, the Lakers’ president of basketball operations plans on flying to Philadelphia before the team plays the Sixers on Sunday to clear the air.
As Turner reports, Johnson is going to do what he can to make sure the team as focused as it enters the stretch run of this season with the postseason in sight — one of his reported talking points is telling them how impressed he was with the aforementioned win over the Celtics. Part of this, of course, will involve addressing the elephant in the room: the fact that a whole bunch of dudes were one phone call away from being in New Orleans right now.
Via LA Times:
Johnson will talk to the Lakers about the Anthony Davis trade saga that nearly pulled them under, emphasizing that the NBA is a business and that this franchise is about winning championships and doing all it can to accomplish that goal.
Johnson will listen to every player who wants to speak, hoping to have an open dialogue with his team so they can all move forward together, one person said.
We’ll have to wait and see what comes of this, because while Johnson appears to see this as a positive thing, it’s not hard to imagine a scenario where a bunch of players — whether they be the dudes mentioned in the trade or veterans sticking up for the aforementioned young guys — get upset and the whole thing goes awry. It certainly doesn’t help that, once the offseason rolls around, it’s possible the Lakers and Pelicans do this entire song and dance again, but Johnson’s focus seems to be on the next few months. Whether the players share that focus when its their futures up in the air, however, might be a different story.
