The Los Angeles Lakers have been as bad as many people had predicted. When the Lakers were losing games last year, it came as a surprise because of the high expectations put on them before the season. This season, everybody saw this coming a mile away, and the Lakers’ front office still made no major moves to improve the team for this season.
LeBron James picked up an injury during the Lakers’ loss against the Clippers, which was marked by a defensive collapse. Richard Jefferson was brutally honest about the Lakers and his former championship teammate LeBron by saying that this team’s season will be over in 10 games.
"They’re about 10 games away from their season most likely being over, and I say that respectfully.”@Rjeff24 on the Lakers' season pic.twitter.com/i7zUkLcDeu
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) November 10, 2022
“This is the spot where you go, ‘okay big fella, take a game off.’ This isn’t load management, this is ‘he’s 37 years old’, I believe on his way to 28 years old and has played more minutes than anybody in the NBA. Instead of being like, ‘you’re the type of person that should be load managed,’ after all that you’ve done for the game, on the court, it’s like you’re supposed to take a day or two off. But the Lakers don’t have that. They’re about 10 games away from their season most likely being over, and I say that respectfully because they’re going to be so far down a hole that it’ll be tough to come out of it.”
RJ is right. LeBron needs to load manage by virtue of age and nothing else, but the Lakers won’t give him the opportunity to because of their losing record. In addition, he’s picking up nagging injuries every season due to the heavy workload on his 20-year veteran body.
Should The Lakers Call It In For This Season?
The Lakers won’t have their own pick in the 2023 NBA Draft and cannot even hope to tank and get a chance at drafting Victor Wembanyama. The New Orleans Pelicans will take the Lakers’ pick if it is higher overall than their own, which means there’s a very solid chance the Lakers’ pick is headed to New Orleans already given the records of the 2 teams.
The only joy in LA LA Land will come from LeBron James inevitably passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the greatest scorer in league history. With his injuries, even that might be a challenge this season if anything else goes bad for the legendary forward.
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