5 THINGS

With the All Star break in the rearview mirror and a much needed break before the Lakers tumultuous season resumes it’s time to look at what the team can do to re-write the narrative. Written off for a title chase by fans and media alike, trying overcome yet another leg injury to Anthony Davis and making the most of an unbalanced roster the Lakers are looking one place right: up at their goals that seem more and more out of reach by the game. For a team that had banner aspirations as recently as December and won a title 2 seasons ago the Lakers are at a crossroads.

1. The Klutch Konnundrum. Honestly, I’ve wanted us to sever this tie since the summer when we chose THT over the more impactful and better suited to win-now Alex Caruso. While there are no time machines around for us to go back and see how things could have been if we swapped Alex for THT we can recognize the toxic relationship with Klutch for what it is: bad for Laker business. I have no real issue with Klutch, they do their job well which is to represent talent on the open market. But, for a flagship franchise like the Lakers to be as beholden to one agency like they’ve become I think it’s an issue. So if Klutch, and by extension LeBron and AD are grumpy that we didn’t make a (widely considered bad) trade for John Wall in an effort to preserve some hope of a future…well…that’s the business. It’s not a one way street of gimmee gimmee gimmee. That’s how children behave. Besides, based on everything we know about the dinner and AD and LBJ pressuring Rob to make the Westbrook deal there’s a fair amount of blame to share. So, as I’ve said a few times now, this is the bed they all made together. Best get cozy.
2. The Anthony Davis question. Again, it’s amazing to me how quickly things can change in pro sport. Considering trading Anthony Davis was nigh unthinkable as recently as January. After his return from his first major injury of the season he was playing well. Maybe not Bubble-level AD but certainly having a very positive impact on both ends. Another ankle injury and, at least for me, a lot is starting to change. Davis may simply not be durable enough to reliably be counted on to lead a franchise. You can’t lead from the bench in street clothes and, outside of his first season here in LA< he’s been trying to lead from that position in those clothes far too often. Davis getting traded likely means the Klutch Konnection is getting blown to smithereens. IMO, not the worst thing that could happen. I am of the opinion that, if it’s for the right deal, trading AD wouldn’t wholly alienate LeBron who seemingly has two goals right now: Winning a cookie and playing with his son Bronny.
3. The LeBron James situation. I don’t think LeBron is going anywhere. he chose LA because he wanted to be near his family oin a nice city where his son was going to attend a private high school and hopefully build some cache as a NBA draft prospect. So, while that is still a work in progress, I expect for James to want to at least stay in LA. Were his All Star media comments curious? Sure, I guess. I mean, Presti is probably one of the shrewder GMs in the Association. I can see how giving Sam props was a subtle way to give Russ props (Presti drafted and shepherded Russ through 2 superstars leaving and then helped him find a situation he wanted to go to in Houston). I can also see it as a dig at Rob who was purportedly in Cleveland attending All Star game festivities. Honestly, it’s clickbait at this point to me. LeBron had as much of a hand in our current situation as anyone. So if he wants to throw himself little pity parties to the media he’s earned that right. Doesn’t mean anyone needs to take it too seriously. The dude is frustrated and I get it: nothing has worked out even close to how they likely hoped it would go. I have a hard time seeing how the Lakers and LeBron can break up with one another this summer. While certainly not impossible I think it would take us falling completely out of the playoffs for that bridge to be crossed. Maybe not even then. The Lakers need LeBron, I don’t see him pulling a Simmons or a Harden and whining his way out of a tough situation or quitting on his team. It would have to be a summer trade and next summer feels the more likely of the two. But, you never know, it is the NBA where weird and unlikely are kinda commonplace. I will say this, it’s obvious The King is unhappy and nobody wants to be around when a grumpy King starts looking for heads to chop. Lakers need to nail the rest of the season and the summer.
4. Where are we going to find help? The only answer that seems likely to me is from within. Probably not the most inspiring thing one could say but I’m being real. Don’t see us making a splash on the buyout market. First off there aren’t a lot of teams with cap space next season, everyone saw what went down with Andre’ Drummond here last season, our team really isn’t all that attractive a destination right now and the positions we need the most help at aren’t likely to see a ton of buyout candidates emerge. Three and D wings don’t usually get bought out. Elite rim protectors don’t really get bought out. So that leaves the dregs of the NBA big men and old and slow vets. Sure, we could switch DeAndre Jordan for Willie Cauley-Stein. Heck, WCS might even see more floor time than Dwight but I kinda doubt it. Drummond couldn’t find a major role here last season and that was with only Marc Gasol as his biggest threat of PT. Davis was out a lot, as well and still Dre’ couldn’t carve out a role here. WCS isn’t the rebounder Drummond is and I just feel like Frank sticks with whom he knows. The Lakers would do themselves a big favor if they adopted the mindset that the cavalry isn’t riding over the hill, that they need to find the resolve to compete better inside themselves, and anything other than that will be a (hopefully) pleasant surprise.
5. How does this season end? Honestly, I don’t see much hope that it ends anything but badly at this point. Let’s say we play .500 ball the rest of the way, no guarantee since we have the 3rd toughest strength of schedule remaining in the NBA. That means we’re facing opponents whose current winning percentage averages out .538. So, while that’s not good news we will be facing the now CP3-less Suns twice, the semi-floundering Warriors twice, Utah, Philly and Cleveland as well. Oddly enough it’s the games against the young athletic Thunder, Rockets and Wizards that makes me worry more. We also face the Clippers twice and winning any game against conference or division opponents is essential at this point. Is there a way I can see the Lakers bumping that winning % up to .600? Well… Uhm… Not really, simply because it would require a multitude of things to break right for us in a season where almost nothing has broken our way. So, in order for me to get behind the idea the Lakers can win 60% of their remaining games the following will have to start happening consistently:
   -the young players need to play better overall and that’s not just on them. Frank needs to give a larger role and trust in Reaves, Monk and THT. We desperately need youth and energy to offset the rest of our geriatric squad and that’s all we got. If Nunn ever plays for us I’ll take that for what it is when I see it.
   -no more injuries. Like zero. We need Melo back, we need AD to make his 4 week timeline and not see it stretch into a 5 to 6 week deal (although he also has to come back right or risk suffering catastrophic injury) and we need LeBron in as good of health as he can manage at this point.
   -Russ needs to keep playing smart. His cuts, his offensive rebounds and his secondary play-maker role are all things he is capable of doing well at. He needs to do just that and be the best offensive rebounding guard in the Association, making the smart cuts we’ve started seeing, and being ready to get the ball off a failed drive with fewer than 10 seconds on the clock and go ahead and make a play.
   -Lakers need a little luck. Odd losses to key opponents, unlikely wins of our own, a decent buyout candidate comes our way, health…you name it. The Lakers could use a heaping portion of good luck to close out the season.

It all starts back up on Friday, hopefully just a couple weeks or so after that we get Davis back, and maybe we see some sense from Frank and he starts Monk even when Bradley returns from his hamstring injury. We’ll see. If we can collectively hit the reset button and come back focused and energetic we can make a nice run to end the season. Not sure how high in the standings we can climb at this point, though.

The Lakers had another sluggish first half against the Utah Jazz last night that culminated with another injury, this one a potentially serious ankle sprain suffered by Anthony Davis. For a team that can’t seem to catch any breaks at all the good news was that, despite the apparent severity of the injury (James Worthy couldn’t watch replays) the ankle was not broken and the return time is 2-4 weeks. Frankly, it looked worse than that and I, again, would rather AD come back feeling strong on the ankle rather than tentative and maybe injuring his knee. After the half the Lakers started to slow in the 3rd then, finally, found a competitive gear and, unlike so many other late, spirited comebacks this season, managed to eke out a win.

1. I thought it fitting that in his first game since passing Cap for combined points scored in the regular season and playoffs LeBron scored 33 points which is also Kareem’s number that hangs in the rafters of The Crypt. LeBron finished a pretty efficient 14-23 from the field, 3-8 from three and was pretty under control with only 3 turnovers to 6 dimes. Again I felt like LeBron earned more than 2 trips to the free throw line continuing a season-long theme. Still, we came out with the win but it’s astounding to me that James, who frequently takes it hard to the rim, doesn’t average more FTA/game.
2. Russell fitting in. There’s only one way to manage Russ at this point: let him roll and hope for the best. The dude is chaos incarnate, which is certainly a blade that can cut two ways. But you’re not going to get good value for him this summer or into next season if you don’t let him loose or bench him in the 4th. You’re just going to damage your chances of trading him this summer or beyond and you’re not trusting unique talent. Russ is a fantastic rebounder (4 offensive rebounds last night) and he applies pressure to a defense that forces it to collapse. When we’re in sync he can hit trailers off a screen for lobs, kick out to shooters or (try) to score at the rim. It’s that last one that, if he can improve just that area of efficiency, we can build on.
3. Reaves earning his role the right way. I love guys in the Austin Reaves mold: tough, not trying too hard to make an impression, finding shots in the flow, defending as well as they can. Austin took some critique from LeBron at one point and you could see he maybe kinda disagreed with it by watching his body language. THT often gets the same look when he funnels a guy the wrong way and one of the vets comes over and informs him of his error. Reaves didn’t let it faze his confidence as he calmly stepped into the game-sealing shot last night. While not as epic as his game winner earlier in the season this was maybe a bigger shot as it helped the team go into the break with a win hopefully setting up a resurgent end to the season.
4. THT’s defense. The last few games we’ve finally started seeing the THT we all would like to see on a more consistent basis. The one that rebounds, makes plays and defends. Talen made 1 shot and missed all of his threes. He still found a way to impact the game positively which has often been a major struggle for him. Shots don’t always fall, you often don’t get the call but you can’t let those things effect you’re ability to impact the game through basic basketball. Rebounding, defending, moving the ball to the open man…none of those are elite level skills. That’s just called playing the right way. THT did that last night even if his point tally wasn’t great.
5. My favorite starting five. Well, for one game we saw my preferred starting five of Davis, Johnson, James, Monk and Westbrook. While it was likely due to Avery’s injury and may not be the look we see every game from here on out I think that line up offers a great blend of defense, size and scoring. Stick with it Frank, at least once AD comes back.
   
   Well, here comes the ASB. We need to come out of it roaring and fighting or we might fall out of the playoffs altogether. if this team misses the playin or gets booted out of it…

Well, there’s only one more in-season chance to hit the reset button. All Star Weekend. Unfortunately the guy whom I think needs to hit reset the most will playing as a Captain in said game. The Lakers lost again, still grasping onto the next-to-last playin spot, in what was a most winnable game. The reasons why we lost are enough to make one think.

1. You have to win games in which you contain the opposing star player. It’s NBA 101: if you contain the number one guy on the other team you need to find a way to win. In this case we let not just one but two other Warriors absolutely go off on us. One, Klay Thompson, is a known. Congrats on working your way back from a catastrophic injury but did you have to rediscover your mojo versus the Lakers on national TV? Kuminga is a different story. We’ve had issues all season with athletic bigs and Jonathon Kuminga fits that mold to a T. Lakers have had a hard time containing no-names all season, it would be odd for that trend to stop now.
2. So very many missed free throws. 11 misses at the stripe (although in truth GS wasn’t much better with 9 misses of their own). LeBron James was the biggest culprit here on a night he sorta kinda not really passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on some sort of total points scored in all sorts of games stat. Wake me up when he hits Kareem’s regular season milestone. It’s the more impressive stat. Lakers been missing free throws all season, it would be odd for that trend to stop now.
3. Can’t put this one on Russ. Two games, one he played in and the other he did not, and the losses look about the same to me. I’ve thought it too convenient that we lay the entirety of the Laker woes at the feet of Westbrook on the court and Vogel regarding his rotations. Of the two it’s Frank that is the bigger issue by far but his weird rotational choices should be obfuscated by the terrible job GM Rob Pelinka has done from the summer to date. Lakers been old all season, it would be odd for that trend to stop now.
4. The disappearing Anthony Davis. I’m sure he’ll say all the things we’ve come to expect when he no-shows like this. His jumper, free throws and overall intensity went MIA in a game we could shoulda won. This is not new and I don’t see it changing. Anthony Davis has been inconsistent since we won the title, it would be odd for that trend to stop now.
5. At least the bench showed up, for the most part. THT, Monk and Reaves all had solid games. Ariza? Notsomuch. He continued his ‘once every four games or so’ good game pattern. It’s like some games his body is up for an NBA game but more often than not he just looks, well, old. Reaves’ block on Klay was the highlight of the game, Monk just seems to find ways to try and lift the team, and leave it to THT to rediscover his game post-trade deadline. The one bright spot from last night was how well the bench played but, honestly, we need Reaves to be a little more aggressive and for Monk to start. The Lakers have odd line ups all season though so, you know, it would be odd for that trend to stop now.

If you sensed a theme with this post, congrats! If we miss the playin my bet is Jeannie cleans house, LeBron might demand a trade and Russ might choose not to opt into returning to this shit-show. Naw, Russ opting in 100% guaranteed.

We saw what a champion looks like last night. Problem is wears a different uniform and hails from Wisconsin. The Lakers folded early, tried to make a game of it late, but never seriously challenged the Bucks after the first couple minutes of the game. Small issues have ballooned into large ones, issues that were large to start have become colossal and there is plenty of blame to go around. But you know all that already.

1. The Bucks game. Honestly, not one good thing to say. Nobody played the entire game with the right energy or focus required to win in pro sport. It’s unacceptable. Frank lost the team weeks ago, LeBron looks ready to sign elsewhere and AD has no clue what to do because he’s such a nice dude. Nothing is working right now. Reasons: too many to list in five things. We all know what they are, anyhow, they’ve been the same all season long. Just now teams who have something to play for are playing harder than us, young teams looking to prove themselves have played harder than us all season. Nothing is given, it must be taken.
2. The Three Superstar Philosophy. In my opinion it doesn’t work. Not when all three are max salaried players. It’s not like Miami where everyone took less to fit under the cap and Miami had a ton of home-grown talent they could sign over the tax. We lost all of those tools via trade or stupidity. Oh, except future All-Star and current Bust (depending on the day) Talen Horton-Tucker. We kept him. Thank Klutch for that… Three max salaried players simply occupies too many resources to field a proper contender. You sacrifice too much team. Takes a team to win. Since we are too cheap to go deep into the luxury tax we need to build a better team around 2 super stars. You know, like how we did when we won the title?
3. The state of the team. Between the Rambii leaking that Vogel could be replaced, Rob handing the reigns of the franchise over to LeBron and AD and ownership looking cheaper and cheaper it’s time for Jeannie to clean house this summer. Sure, we might make the playin. Heck, if things break right we might even push as high as a 6th seed (we won’t). Regardless it’s become quite plain to me that the principles and standards guiding the Lakers are no in alignment with championship level basketball. James chose us, Klutch forced AD here, the best thing Rob ever did was (build a functioning team around AD and LBJ, for some reason, broken up right after it worked. The Bucks know what they’re doing. We do not.
4. The Fans. Much has been made of the booing of Russ and the team in general. To me that’s as much a symptom of the current reality (where the cost of things ever increases but the money most people make stays the same) as displeasure. The real thing I think fans are booing is energy, or lack thereof. As a team the Lakers energy hasn’t been right al;l season long. That takes a toll on the passionate Laker fan base and it’s showing. So, for my part, I think this has been a slow burn up to this moment and not that all of a sudden the fans are angry. We’ve stunk all season long.
5. How to fix it all? Nobody will like this answer but I say wait until the summer. Don’t double-down on dumb and trade Westbrook for Wall. It fixes nothing, absolutely nothing. It just means you have an expensive, broken down player signed for even longer on an even more untradeable contract. That’s it. Solutions don’t look like that, they don’t increase the length of the problem. They make it go away or resolve it internally. If you can break Russ’s deal into a few players, or someone who’s contract expires this summer now you’re talking about a real solution. Wall is not the answer.

We’ll probably win against Portland since it’s A) on the road and B) Portland. Thursday will pass without any deals being made in my opinion. I don’t even know if I hope I’m wrong to tell the truth. I’d rather ride out what’s left of a bad season, find a deal that actually improves the team, or even somehow convince Russ to accept a buyout or not to pick up his extension than bring a player in just as expensive but who hasn’t played in over a year. I see that as about the worst idea possible, worse than trading for Ben Simmons (which I am still opposed to). We made a mistake, yes. The way we fix that isn’t making a bad trade, again.

Anyone still out there preaching patience? I didn’t think so. The Lakers Road Trip From Hell ended the way so many things have ended for the Lakers this season: with a loss followed by some clichés. We’re well past the point of clichés and moral victories. Team Oxygen gave life to another sub .500 team. If only we could breathe some into ourselves…

1. A tale of two AD’s. Davis in the first half? Nigh unstoppable. 6-8 from the floor, 6-6 from the free throw line, 1-1 from three and beasting like we know he can. Second half AD? Borderline non-existent going 2-8 including letting a lob from Westbrook he just let slip through his hands. Add in missing all three free throws, grabbing a meager 5 rebounds overall and you have a recipe for why the Lakers came up short in this game. Davis has a history of pulling a Bilbo Baggins: when the going gets tough, AD magically vanishes. The outliers, at this point, are the times he can find a higher gear and kick into it successfully; like hitting the game-wining three against Denver in The Bubble. When you see his rebounding numbers without a traditional center on the floor it’s kind of amazing. The guy seems to rebound better when there is another big man on the floor. When he’s the main guy down low it’s like he forgets to box out, forgets to jump, or gets stuck on the perimeter guarding a PG on a switch and his man is just rolling hard to the rim. That last knock is for the team and not AD specifically, you gotta cover your big man when he covers for you or else there will be a dunk scored on you in the near future.
2. Keep Monk no matter what. The one thing I can say with certainty about this season is that we need to keep Malik Monk on the team at all costs. Come Hell or high water that guy needs to stay in the purple and gold. Monk had a career high as a Laker last night, shot a ridiculous 8-14 from three and hardly got a shot attempt during the last 5 minutes of the game except for a three which got us close again. Frank needs to do better and it’s well past time he started along with LeBron (whenever he comes back), AD and Russ. 5th starter should be match up-based. End of discussion.
3. The ever-shrinking THT role on this team. Only problem with that is he’s played his way right out of any meaningful trade scenarios one cares to concoct. At this point I’d basically hold onto him in order to possibly help facilitate a Russ trade this summer, free up cap space to sign Monk, or just wait and see if he plays better in year 4. 14 minutes but he did make most of his shots. However, it’s the defensive end that is the reason for his ever-shrinking minute allotment. THT hasn’t taken a step forward this season as the Lakers banked he would, to the team’s detriment on all fronts.
4. Onyeka Okongwu…ALL STAR!!! At least he looked like it down the stretch as he made dunk after dunk after dunk after dunk after…well, you get the picture. 6 straight dunks down the stretch of the 4th quarter most of them with Davis “guarding” him. The Lakers had absolutely zero answers for the Young Okongwu pick and roll or the team failed to box him out and he grabbed an offensive rebound late, as well. Team Oxygen strikes again.
5. 11 points given away at the free throw line. Sure, the Hawks and whiny, floppy Trae Young shot 9 more free throws than we did. Doesn’t seem like more free throws taken was what we needed, just needed to make more of the ones we got. Every starter that took one missed one, AD and Russ each missed three. Hard to win on the road when you lose the free throw battle, the points in the paint battle, the rebounding battle, the fast-break points battle and oh wait…we won the three point battle. Whee.

Not gonna lie, just don’t see much getting better until LeBron comes back and even then…I don’t know. This team doesn’t defend very well, maybe they will a little better when healthy but we basically have to outscore our opponents cause we ain’t stopping jack this season. We don’t force bad shots, we sieve points in the paint no matter who plays center, and we can’t get out on the break like we know this team needs to in order to have success because we don’t force turnovers. Trade THT for _________ who makes $10ish million? OK, sure, feels like a lateral move unless it’s for a solid center who can let AD slide (slink at this point) back to the 4. We don’t need a volume three point shooter who won’t defend any better than guys we already have, we need help in the paint to stem one of the three major areas we hemorrhage points from. To me that means a center, I don’t give a fig if he can shoot a three pointer or not. That is not why we need them or what this team needs more of. We need defense.