Los Angeles Lakers
Cancún is a beautiful city on the coast of Mexico that is oftentimes a vacation spot for many in the United States. It will also be where LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers will be spending their summer after failing to make any kind of move whatsoever at the trade deadline.
Entering the 2021-22 NBA season, the Lakers were picked by many to be this year’s champions and be the “team to beat” across the league. Los Angeles is now 56 games into their season and they have proven to be a team to beat on 30 different occasions, as they currently have a 26-30 record and are the 9-seed in the Western Conference.
LeBron James can only do so much for this team, as can Anthony Davis, and the “Russell Westbrook experiment” has not worked out well for Los Angeles. Westbrook is definitely not the one to blame fully for the Lakers’ struggles though, as it starts at the top with ownership and the front-office.
The Lakers knew what they were getting into by acquiring Russell Westbrook this offseason and pushing themselves so far into the luxury tax threshold that there was no turning back.
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GM Rob Pelinka basically went “all-in” at a poker table with nothing more than a pair of 2s, hoping that the dealer would give him four-of-a-kind on the flop.
Everything about the Lakers season has been terrible and things are not going to get better for this group, especially since they are one of the oldest teams based on average age in NBA history.
Of their remaining 26 games this season, 16 of them are against teams with a winning record, which the Lakers do not have, and they will have to play both the Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors twice.
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Los Angeles needed to either flip Russell Westbrook for John Wall at the deadline, which was on the table according to Yahoo’s Chris Haynes, or flip Talen Horton-Tucker for more immediate value.
The Lakers did none of these things, which is why if they do actually claim the 10-seed or better, they should already have their luggage packed because a long vacation is on the horizon for them once again this offseason.
