The Los Angeles Lakers’ latest embarrassment, a Christmas Day loss to the Dallas Mavericks, led to as dejected of a LeBron James as fans had seen in years.
After the outing, he was asked whether his squad had a path to recovering and salvaging this season. He said it did, but then dropped an all-time quote.
“How many times are you going to try to dig yourselves out until it’s too much dirt on you?” he asked.
The front office seems to be thinking along the same lines as their star player.
According to Jovan Buha of The Athletic, the Lakers may not make the big move everyone is expecting them to ahead of the NBA Trade Deadline.
“Reinforcements via trade would obviously help, and the Lakers are still evaluating their options on a dormant trade market,” he wrote.
“At the same time, it becomes increasingly challenging to justify trading a first-round pick if the group continues to struggle. The front office doesn’t want to compound its previous mistakes with more win-now moves.”
L.A. has two first round picks remaining in this decade: a 2027 and a 2029. If they bet big on another move and fail, they will have zero paths left to rebuilding down the line.
All of which probably explains the Lakers’ shifting opinion on trading Russell Westbrook. And why, despite James making it very clear who he wants management to go out and acquire, Rob Pelinka is still dragging his feet.
It seems like slowly all parties involved are beginning to realize that there is no pot of gold waiting for the Lakers at the end of this season. They will likely be bad – again – and nothing the squad has ability to do now will change that.
There are still two players Los Angeles will aim to trade before the deadline, but that won’t have a material impact on the season.
Another reason why women’s soccer players deserve to be paid the same as the men. https://t.co/WTpbgdq8Mq
— Game 7 (@game7__) December 26, 2022
No, for all intents and purposes, it appears as though the Lakers are preparing to throw in the towel.
Does anyone want to see the final years of James’ career wasted in this fashion? Obviously not. But is there any way to actually fix the Lakers at this juncture? It doesn’t look like it.
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Jennifer Withers Hoey is a former Business Development Manager who transitioned to writing about sports. With valuable connections all over the West Coast, she has used those contacts to break some of the most interesting stories pertaining to the Portland Trail Blazers, Oregon Ducks, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Seattle Supersonics (RIP), and more.
