The Whiteboard: The Los Angeles Lakers have failed as an NBA organization
By Ti Windisch
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The Los Angeles Lakers have failed. There is simply no way to look at the 2018-19 Lakers season and come up with a different conclusion. Since signing LeBron James to kick off the summer of 2018, the Lakers have failed at nearly every impasse the organization has encountered.
The Cleveland Cavaliers got incredible amounts of flak for supposedly failing to put a quality team around LeBron James too, in his last stint there. The difference is that the Cavaliers made the NBA Finals every season in LeBron’s second term. Yes, the Western Conference is more difficult. That should not matter to the team with LeBron James on it. Not qualifying for postseason play with prime LeBron is a failure, full-stop.
We’re not even three years removed from LeBron leading the most improbable NBA Finals comeback of all time. He hasn’t regressed much if at all since then. LeBron is averaging more points, rebounds and assists per game this season than he did in the 2015-16 regular season, and is matching his steals per game and blocks per game. He’s actually playing 0.1 minutes less per game now, and is more efficient from both 3-point and 2-point range. LeBron is still the NBA’s best player, when he tries.
A common trend as the Lakers drop games against teams like the Phoenix Suns has been to highlight LeBron not trying on defense. That’s nothing new. What those clips fail to indicate is that Los Angeles is 1.6 points per 100 possessions better than other teams with LeBron on the floor and a ghastly 5.6 points per 100 possessions worse when he sits.
Yes, he brings drama, and can be cryptic, and doesn’t try hard every single possession in February. It doesn’t matter. LeBron may be the greatest player of all time. He is, unquestionably, without a doubt, worth whatever hassle comes with having him on the roster. LeBron is not the reason the Lakers are 10th in the West and have just an eight percent chance of making the playoffs, according to FiveThirtyEight.
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Having Lonzo Ball, who has sat out 14 straight games with an ankle injury, would’ve helped prevent Los Angeles from going 5-12 in its last 17 games. Considering the Lakers have a negative point differential with Ball on the court this season, it might not have helped enough. Even if it did, a team with LeBron should be constructed better than this. Lonzo Ball missing a few weeks shouldn’t be the difference between the postseason and the lottery.
LeBron missed some time too. The Lakers clearly were unprepared for that possibility, as L.A. went 6-12 without him. Even if he’d played every game, the Lakers’ 53.3 winning percentage in games LeBron has played this year would have them at roughly 35 wins total, the same mark the San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Clippers are currently at. The bottom few playoff seeds is just not where a LeBron team should be. Being out of the postseason entirely is unthinkable for a team with a player this good.
The problem with the Lakers roster has been obvious since the front office duo of Rob Pelinka and Magic Johnson began assembling it. There is not enough shooting. Los Angeles ranks 21st in the NBA in 3-point shots made per game and 28th in 3-point percentage. The Lakers have just two of the 98 players in the league who are shooting more than 35 percent from 3 and attempting three 3-pointers per game: Reggie Bullock and LeBron.
The Lakers brought in Lance Stephenson, JaVale McGee, Michael Beasley (who they later traded in a salary dump that cost them Ivica Zubac, who is legitimately good), Rajon Rondo and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope as their veteran cast in free agency. Those players have shot 191-547 from 3-point territory combined. Brook Lopez, who the Lakers let go to Milwaukee, has shot 151-409 from deep by himself.
Ball, Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma have all shown at least flashes of real potential. None of them have shown that they are reliable NBA 3-point shooters. Ball is shooting 32.9 percent from 3, Ingram is at 33.0 percent, and Kuzma is making just 31.3 percent of his triples. The Cavaliers gave an obvious template for how to have success with LeBron around — surround him with good shooters. The Lakers have roughly one of those, outside of LeBron himself.
Whether punting a season of prime LeBron was actually part of the plan or Lakers exceptionalism made Magic and Pelinka believe this team was actually going to be good, this season represents an abject organizational failure. From the ongoing will they/won’t they fire Luke Walton question to the embarrassing mess caused by a failed power play for Anthony Davis, the Lakers have yet to handle a single situation in their LeBron era well.
Still, drama is one thing, and it’s often overblown. Missing the playoffs with LeBron James averaging 27.0 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 8.1 assists per game is another. This does not bode well for the rest of LeBron’s time in Los Angeles.
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