The 2021/22 season for the Lakers was one of the greatest disasters in not only Lakers history, but also in all-time NBA history. From a team that was predicted to win the NBA title in the offseason to not even make the Play-In Round was an embarrassment the Lakers must correct this year.
This Lakers team is only three years removed from WINNING the NBA championship. Yes, it may seem like ancient history now, but the LeBron-lead Lakers were once a cohesive, consistent team capable of winning NBA championships.
But that was three years ago, when the Lakers’ stars were younger and far less brittle.
In that 2019/20 season, the Lakers were able to accomplish something that they have yet to replicate in any of the other seasons during LeBron James’ tenure. They stayed healthy. Both Anthony Davis and LeBron James played their most ever games in a single season (LeBron: 67, Anthony Davis: 62) for LA that year. In the other two years of LeBron James and Anthony Davis’ partnership when one or the other wasn’t consistently healthy, they haven’t made it past the first round.
And in LeBron’s lone season in 2018/19, the Lakers didn’t even make it to the playoffs.
Clearly, when the Lakers can stay healthy, they are one of the very best teams in the league. However, asking the Lakers to stay healthy is like asking a vegan to eat bacon. It’s not happening.
Okay, so how are the Lakers going to make the playoffs then? Well, they are going to have to pray LeBron can keep up his MVP caliber play and stay healthy for a full season.
Last year, Lebron registered 30.3 PPG, his second highest total in his entire career. If his team wasn’t so awful, he would have been the league MVP. So, if LeBron can stay (relatively) healthy and put up 27-30 PPG again, then the Lakers have a chance.
What would guarantee the Lakers entry into the playoffs next season is if Russel Westbrook can have a bounce back season. What! Keep Russel Westbrook? You are probably saying, “They should have gotten rid of him during last season, let alone keep him for all of next year.”
Normally, I would agree with you. I would have also gotten rid of Westbrook under “normal circumstances” too. But this is the Los Angeles Lakers, and there are never any “normal circumstances” surrounding them.
The Lakers don’t have the draft capital to trade off Westbrook to a team willing to take his repellent $47M cap hit this year. They also don’t have the cap space to sign/trade for someone as the Lakers are currently $53M over the cap.
So, if new head coach Darvin Ham can get Westbrook to dramatically cut down from his 295 turnovers (2nd worst in NBA) and produce over 20 PPG again, then maybe the Lakers have a chance to get the 6th spot and potentially avoid the Play-In Round.
I would mention Anthony Davis and how he can help the Lakers next year, though I fear it would just be a moot point. At this point in Davis’ career, I no longer think he can be counted on playing a significant amount of time that would help the Lakers get into the playoffs.
If Los Angeles can get 50-55 games out of Davis, that should be seen as a major success. Yet, I fear only 40-48 games is a more realistic outlook for Davis next season.
I don’t see the Lakers playing as bad as they did last year, but I’m not even sure if they will make the playoff. There is too many uncertain variables in that team for me to be certain about anything with them.
If they don’t make any significant changes to their roster this offseason, I would expect an 8th-10th place finish and Play-In Round games.
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