Piece By Nicholas Cosmai
Twitter: @CozzyNick
October 11th only seven months ago, was the day the Los Angeles Lakers lifted their 17th NBA Championship. After a grueling 96 days in the Disney world bubble in Orlando, Florida, both the LA Lakers and the Miami Heat only had 72 days between game 6 of the NBA Finals and opening night of the 2020/21 NBA Season. This season has really been quite unique and challenging for the champions which this time around ended on a down.
The Off season moves
Whilst the La Lakers topped the NBA world legitimately by winning the championship last October, many believed that their dominance continued off the court after the Finals. Their only trade before the draft was dealing Danny Green to the Oklahoma City Thunder to receive Dennis Schroder in return, who was the runner up for the 2019/20 NBA sixth man of the year award.
This was viewed by many as the most underrated trade of the off season. Dennis is only 27 years old compared to Danny being 33 years old, Schroder is also a higher volume scorer compared to Danny Green being a pure catch and shoot “3 and D” guy. Some of the ins included reigning sixth man of the year Montrezl Harrell from the clippers, Wesley Matthews from the Milwaukee Bucks and Marc Gasol from Toronto. Who replaced Avery Bradley who went to Miami, Dwight Howard who went to Philadelphia, JaVale McGee who went to Cleveland and Rajon Rondo who at the time signed with Atlanta.
The Fast start
During the opening months of the season, no one led the western conference more than the Lakers. By the end of January, they were 14-4 and were undefeated on the road, and were number one in the league. They ranked third in field goal percentage, fifth in three-point percentage and seventh overall in points per game. What anchored this team the whole season was their ability to play better defense than anyone else. They ranked first in defensive rating and point conceded.
The Beginning of the end?
A third of the way through the 2020/21 NBA season is what seemed to be the downfall of the Lakers’ regular season. Through 24 games, the lakers were 18-6 and although not playing the greatest brand of basketball, they were picking up wins and remaining second in the west, only a few games behind the Jazz. Up until this point, the lakers did not have many major injuries, Anthony Davis only had missed a few games to nagging injuries. This was about to change; Anthony Davis was sidelined for over two months with a Calf/Achilles injury which was the longest he had been sidelined due to an injury. For the next month, the La Lakers would go 10-8 without Anthony Davis, which is not too bad, but it is not great either. Fortunately, this only dropped them down just to third in the west. There only problem was they were also two and a half games ahead of being sixth.
CODE RED
Just as if the Lakers were hanging on to staying towards the top for as long possible, manageable became panic mode. In a game at Staples Centre against the Atlanta Hawks, LeBron went down with a high ankle sprain which forced him out until the last week of the regular season.
The Lakers from March 21st until April 22nd were without both AD and LBJ. Their record went from 28-15 to 35-24 in this time, and they dropped to fifth in the west for almost all of April. Those stats from opening night until the end of April completely flipped. The month where both stars were out offensively, the team ranked 26th in points per game, 25th in field goal percentage, 13th in field goal percentage and 26th in free throw percentage. Looking at these stats people would think it is a miracle that they almost broke-even in this month. As previously mentioned, the team’s defensive system led by Frank Vogel was the reason that they were not being blown out in games. Still ranked number one in the league up until this point. Which was highly impressive without AD for 2 months.
“If they can just get healthy”
What frustrated the Lakers the most this season was the timing of some of their injuries for not just LeBron and AD, but their other key players too. Dennis Schroder was one of these players who had missed two weeks of games towards the end of the season. The constant headline for this team was if they can get there players back and get their legs underneath them, they will be alright. From AD’s return, the team broke even, but as the middle of the top eight of the west was so tight, they fell out to the 7th seed. When they finally got everyone healthy, it was the last week of the regular season. There were only two games left in the regular season before they had their sole play in game. Despite all their players playing, LeBron still looked to be carrying that high ankle sprain injury which was shown in his lack of explosiveness. The team’s rhythm and chemistry really took its time to come around. Many thought the championship DNA of the team led by LeBron James would somehow figure it out.
Play in
The Lakers did not figure out how to win until the second half against the Warriors. Down by 13 at half, the Lakers were up against it and had to grind their way in a tough hard-fought battle to go directly into the playoffs. A huge first half by Stephen Curry put the Warriors in a really good position to win it down the stretch. As he usually does, making completely and utterly, outrageous threes, which when LA tried to break through, put one of these shots in to kill any momentum.
Eventually LA got close enough to be able to be able to have a run that would put them over the top. Just like it has in the Frank Vogel reign, it has started with their defense, Alex Caruso in the remaining part of the fourth quarter was exceptional. When brought on, he forced Steph on a cold streak, forcing turnovers, bad shots and most importantly the ball out of Curry’s hands. With a minute left to play, the Lakers had an extremely scrappy possession which ended up seeing the ball passed out to LeBron on the Staples Center logo. He stepped into a three as the shot clock expired and hit the triple right in Steph Curry’s face, ironic, isn’t it? This was enough to put the Lakers up 103-100 which ended up being the final score.
Have they figured it out?
As the seventh seed, the Lakers were sent to Phoenix where they faced a young suns team led by Chris Paul. The first game, many people expected the Lakers to start slow considering how disjointed and disconnected they had been for the previous two and a half months. As expected, the lakers dropped the first game, and were down by 13 at three quarter time and were forced to play catchup for the last which did not work. Despite Chris Paul hurting his shoulder, DeAndre Ayton scored way too easy and got under the basket way too easy. Devin Booker was best on the court as he would be for most of their wins with 34 points.
They were put under the microscope after this game and in particular, Anthony Davis was for his passive game on offence and then on defense where DeAndre Ayton was able to score at will. The tone of games two and three had changed, some of this was due to Chris Paul carrying his injured shoulder from game one but also the lakers were able to dominate the paint. This has become the brand of the team’s offense, they were not at all a three-point shooting team, as there shooting throughout the series was horrible. In game two, most importantly down the stretch, LeBron and AD came up in the clutch to close the game out.
The Lakers won game three more comfortably and look to have control of the series with a 2-1 lead and home court advantage.
Not again
Right on queue again for this season, the lakers were yet again affected by injuries. In game three, Anthony Davis had hurt his knee but continued to play out the game alright in the win. Towards the end of the game, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope went down with a knee injury, although he only missed the remaining few mins of this game, he missed game four. AD started out game four like he did in game one but this time around, he was more restricted by injury. In the third quarter, AD went up for a layup and fell awkwardly, many thought it was his knee yet again playing up, when in fact it was his groin. He was forced out for the remainder of the game. From that moment, Phoenix went on a huge run in the 3rd until midway through the last quarter to go up by more than 20 points. This was enough to level the series, taking back home court advantage into game five.
After this game, AD had scans and they showed he had a grade one groin strain, which can sideline you for at least a week.
The Harsh Exit
After all the talk about if the Lakers could just get healthy for the playoffs, they could not even do that. For game five back in Phoenix, KCP returned, and AD was forced to miss it. The Lakers for the next two games were completely out of it. Combining the injury of AD but more so not being mentally prepared for this game hurt themselves. What made it worse is Phoenix were phenomenal, before half time, they had led of 40 points, the game was well and truly over in the second quarter. Devin Booker leading the charge again dominating offensively.
Game six the Lakers were forced to play their hand and had to play AD even if he was not 100% ready to go. Somehow, he was cleared to go and lasted all but five and a half minutes into the first quarter before not returning. This game followed script of the previous game; it was over at half time. Devin Booker like game five was unstoppable, scoring 47 points. In the four games Phoenix won he was phenomenal, no one could contain him. Yet again the Lakers could not hit any shots when the suns protected the paint. What made it worse was the Lakers had only played one good half combined for games five and six, which is a deplorable effort. Another 30-point half time deficit was enough for the Suns to claim game six and the series.
Restricted off season.
Rob Pelinka is again tasked with having to form another championship roster with very little salary cap space for the third consecutive year. There are nine players who are not contracted for next season. These players are Dennis Schroder, Andre Drummond, Alex Caruso, Wesley Matthews, Markieff Morris, Jared Dudley and Ben McLemore. Talen Horton-Tucker is a restricted free agent, the Lakers can give him a qualifying offer of approximately $2million and Montrezl Harrell has a player option worth $9.6million. The players that remain under contract for next season are LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma and Marc Gasol. With these five players alone, the Lakers are under the salary cap by $229,583, so basically nothing. If Montrezl Harell exercises his player option, they will be over the salary cap.
Now of course there are exceptions to go over the cap and the biggest one for the lakers is the players that have bird rights. Only Matthews, Drummond and McLemore do not have these rights so it might be hard to fit them in the cap without making trades with players who are already in contracts.
The Predicted approach
In hindsight many will look back at the last off season and wonder why Rob Pelinka did not bring back all the championship squad. The approach to last season although a gutsy one, was logical. This season’s roster was more fitted for the potential tolls of having a few outs. Players like Schroder and Harrell can go and get their own shots and score at a higher level. Even a player like Gasol who is more dynamic for running certain plays would be better suited for filling in over players like McGee, Howard, and Rondo, who cannot do this often at their level. Unfortunately, there were far too many outs and most of the time they were LBJ and AD. Put it this way, if the Lakers had the same injury problems last season as they did this season, it would be as much of an uphill battle.
So obviously this construction of the roster did not quite work out, so now take this into consideration. LBJ and AD had the longest injuries of there careers, AD has always had nagging injuries in the regular season but never in the playoffs, this was his first time. This is more so for LBJ, he has now had two major injuries in three seasons. If this does not scream that the Lakers are going to try whatever they can to get a third star, then I do not know what does.
At this point, the only way the Lakers can do this is through a huge trade which can clear enough cap space or get that star through the trade. The Lakers have six first round picks from now until the 2028 draft, so draft picks are not actually the problem. In the free agency market, the only two players the Lakers should look at is Chris Paul or Kawhi Leonard should they decline their player options. Chris Paul is close friend to LeBron and Kawhi wants to stay in LA and if the clippers bottle their playoff campaign again, he may look for alternatives. Otherwise, the Lakers have the trade market, where there are several players they could look at. One name that stands out more then anyone’s right now is Damian Lillard’s. Portland have had another disappointing exit where Lillard has tried to carry them through, averaging 34 point and 10 assists including a 55 point and 12 assist game five and that still was not enough. His mind would be wondering. Some other names the Lakers could look at are Stephen Curry, Bradley Beal, Zach LaVine, Karl Anthony-Towns and Jayson Tatum. Who all may also not ignore the possibility of being traded. The possibilities are open for the Lakers this off season.
The lakers would be happy they can move on from this torturous season and put it behind them. This season saw the side effects from going the distance in the bubble and having an extremely short off season leading into a condensed season. This off season no doubt will bring plenty of movement on and off the roster, Rob Pelinka has work to do. Most people will expect the Lakers to be fully healthy next season and be firing. If they do add to their dynamic duo to make it a trio, they can absolutely go the distance.