Yeah, this is exactly what I thought the In-Season tournament would mean to the NBA season. The Los Angeles Lakers have been one of the worst teams in basketball since the In-Season tournament and have fallen all the way out of the West playoff picture.
At least the Lakers can hold around their In-Season tournament cup while they’re sitting at home and watching the playoffs.
Despite winning the In-Season Tournament and being the most efficient team in the brand-new addition to the NBA season, the Los Angeles Lakers have completely fallen out of a playoff spot and are one of the most pathetic teams over December and now early January. And, as I thought, the NBA In-Season Tournament is just a glorified “December Champion” trophy.
This is why you don’t hold tournaments in the middle of the season when everyone is still finding their footing.
Now, just starting off with the Lakers, I really don’t know what else to say about them other than they just suck. They’re one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA with terrible field goal attempts (6th worst attempts…despite 8th best shooting %) and just downright awful beyond the arc (7th worst %, 2nd worst attempts, 3rd worst makes) shooting all over the board, while their starting five might literally be the worst in basketball as only Anthony Davis and LeBron James can score points in it.
Seriously, Tauren Prince, Cam Reddish, and Jared Vanderbilt, the three other members of the starting five, scored a grand total of…4 points against the Miami Heat last night in the Lakers EMBARASSING 110-96 loss to a Heat team without Jimmy Butler. Oh, and Jared Vanderbilt was the guy who scored all of those 4 points.
Yeah, the Lakers have pretty good pieces sitting on the bench and/or injury table, such as Austin Reaves, Gabe Vincent, D’Angelo Russell, and Christian Wood, but Darvin Ham really is doing his hardest to not only ruin all of the good will he has built up with the Lakers front office and fanbase after going to the WCF last season, but also waste yet another one of LeBron James’ final seasons in the NBA on another horrific Lakers team with this lineup he keeps picking.
And, whether or not Rob Pelinka is able to pull another rabbit out of a hat with some deadline acquisitions to turn this team around from being lottery-bait to Western Conference contenders AGAIN, the real story of the Lakers precipitous downfall is how the In-Season tournament just blew up in Adam Silver’s face.
Now, I give credit to Adam Silver for devising up a tournament like this as it does have potential to be really good, yet it’s execution this season must have been one of the worst ways the In-Season Tournament could have been implemented.
It’s really quite remarkable how the inaugural In-Season champion Lakers, who were sitting in the Top-4 of the Western Conference the night they won the inaugural In-Season Tournament, have lost 8 of their last 10 games, are in the midst of a 3-game losing streak, have lost 9 of the 12 games they’ve played since the championship game against the Pacers Dec. 12 and their champagne celebrations and banner raising, and have fallen all the way into 10th place in the Western Conference in less than a month.
And we’re supposed to take In-Season Tournament seriously?
The Lakers have done more damage to the credibility of the In-Season Tournament than what even I could have imagined despite having WON THE CUP! This horrific form of the Lakers and all the talk around massive changes to the roster just proves this tournament was nothing more than crowing the team who was playing the best basketball in December.
All the ACTUALLY good teams, such as the Nuggets, Celtics, 76ers, Timberwolves, Bucks, and Thunder, were all eliminated early on due to either roster-gelling issues or injuries, while the average teams took advantage and won this useless cup. I mean, just look at the EC Finalist Pacers if you don’t believe me!
They’re sitting in a 4-way tie for 5th place in the East with the Magic, Cavaliers, and Knicks. Sure, Tyrese Halliburton has been outstanding this year and most likely will make an All-NBA team with his play from the point and the Pacers have the league’s best offence, but they have the 2nd worst defense in the NBA (they give up two points less than the Wizards for goodness sake!) and are 7 games back of the East-leading Celtics.
The NBA In-Season Tournament is not a bad idea in theory, but the NBA has really made one of the most promising new events to the NBA calendar year look like a total joke by having poor and middling teams win a December cup that seems less and less relevant to ACTUAL standing and team reputation by the minute.
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