Lakers need to get their act together to improve roster after rival's deflating comments

For a second consecutive postseason, the Los Angeles Lakers lost a series against the Denver Nuggets, ending their season prematurely. There isn't a lot of shame in losing to an elite team like Denver led by arguably the best player on the planet, Nikola Jokic, but doing so two straight seasons shows that the Lakers have a lot more room to grow as a team.

What makes this past season's loss against Denver even more frustrating in retrospect is that the Nuggets weren't even playing at full strength. Just look at what former Nuggets guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had to say about that on the Draymond Green Show.

The Lakers had substantial leads throughout the series and were playing against a Nuggets team with "no gas", yet the Lakers fell in five games in the first round. If that's not a wake-up call, I don't know what is.

Embarrassing comments from rival should bump Lakers urgency to improve

After hearing Caldwell-Pope admit that the Nuggets were exhausted yet were still able to complete several comebacks and knock the Lakers out in five games, how do they not go all-out to try and improve?

This team has done virtually nothing this offseason. Yes, they replaced Darvin Ham with JJ Redick, but how much of a difference can that realistically make? They drafted Dalton Knecht who should be a solid rotational piece and Bronny James to add some depth to their backcourt, but those are the only real additions they made other than re-signing Max Christie.

With that in mind, the Lakers are essentially running back a team that has proven it isn't even good enough to beat an exhausted Nuggets team. How in the world will they beat a rested Denver squad without making other moves?

The Lakers have tradable draft picks, contracts to attach to deals for expensive stars like D'Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura, and young players as well such as Austin Reaves and the aforementioned Knecht to try and acquire a star.

All the Lakers are doing by waiting is running back a roster that already wasn't good enough with LeBron James only one year older. The time for Rob Pelinka to make moves is now. Hopefully, he has a big one in him.