Turds, injuries and early exits: Why the Lakers vibes are approaching rock bottom

After dropping their third straight game, a 110-96 loss to the Heat, frustration was evident for every member of the Lakers. Jovan Buha of The Athletic pointed out that LeBron James left the game before speaking to reporters. Two other members of the Lakers did comment on the loss. Austin Reaves said the vibe of the locker room was "s****y" and coach Darvin Ham said that the team losing multiple rotational players to injury is a lot worse than losing one player like the Miami Heat have over the last couple of games with Jimmy Butler's injury.

While the Lakers haven't had a clean bill of health this season, the team hasn't had injury luck worse than any other team. The Lakers have missed Jarred Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura, Gabe Vincent, Cam Reddish, and other players this season. Austin Reaves wasn't himself to start the season, struggling to shoot the ball with his legs tired from the FIBA World Cup.

The Lakers haven't looked like a team that can win the Finals this season but the team was able to keep their head over water for most of the early part of the season. After losing three straight to the Spurs, Knicks and Bulls right before Christmas, the team's cushion was gone and they had the potential to hit rock bottom.

Flash forward to after Christmas day and the team has lost three straight to the Timberwolves, Heat and Pelicans. With that in mind, the Lakers may heading towards a eventful trade deadline.

Are the Lakers heading towards a massive trade deadline with their recent struggles?

The Lakers were always destined to make moves at the trade deadline. D'Angelo Russell was always gonna be involved in trade rumors regardless of how the team played this season with the way he played in the postseason last season. Still, the Lakers might make one or two more moves than expected since Vincent hasn't had a clean bill of health for the entire season.

At the end of the day, the most impactful change that the Lakers can make is firing Darvin Ham. While no one should be advocating for someone to lose their job, Ham hasn't done a good job this season. His three-guard lineups are part of the reason that the Lakers are struggling. Change is coming because the status quo isn't sustainable.