The 2018/19 NBA season for the Los Angeles Lakers was already surrounded with hype before its beginning, as the Purple and Gold signed arguably the best player on earth, LeBron James, to be the leader of a new successful era at Staples Center.
James was expected to do and achieve good things in L.A., as he landed on a team full of young blood and experience, eager to be the big team they used to be until their playoff drought started. Unfortunately, none of that happened and the Lakers were unable to qualify to the postseason for the sixth consecutive year, in most part due to LeBron and teammates’ body issues that left the team helpless during a big part of the competition.
In addition, when key players were out due to injuries, nobody could take the reins of the team and make it a competitive one until the biggest forces made their return.
This season’s Los Angeles Lakers’ roster will be remembered as one of the worst LeBron James has since his very first campaign in the league, 16 years ago.
Basketball-reference.com has a stat to explain this with Win Share per 48 minutes (WS/48). This metric intends to credit players for how much they each contributed to a victory.
By using this, LBJ is most successful when he’s paired up with at least one All-Star player, such as Kyrie Irving or Dwyane Wade, for example. That’s when these Lakers make their appearance, as they didn’t sign a player with the same caliber than LeBron. They couldn’t land Paul George or DeMarcus Cousins during the offseason, deciding to go a different path than they were used to go, signing role players instead of All-Stars.
The front office saw the young core of the team as a very good backup for James, but they didn’t have good seasons, either, decreasing their level from the prior season.
According to WS/48, not Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma or Brandon Ingram were able to improve or even maintain their contribution level this year.
As for the depth, things didn’t were so different since only Lance Stephenson could improve his contributions. WS/48 has an average of about .100, and James had had at least three teammates above .100 in each season he got to the playoffs and five teammates surpassing that mark during his trips to the NBA Finals with Miami and Cleveland.
This season, out of teammates who played in at least 40 games, only JaVale McGee and Tyson Chandler broke that mark.
LeBron’s teammates’ contributions through the years have been constant. James has always had a wingman or several of them that helped him be successful in his prior teams. Perhaps he’ll have the chance to bounce back next season and show the people what every fan in the world was expecting from him and his team this season.
