The Los Angeles Lakers weren’t expected to be title contenders this season, but there was hope that they would at least be good. That hope has been smashed by their start, the Lakers have won just 25% of their opening 8 games. The situation isn’t expected to improve either, their next game is against the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have the second-best record in the whole league so far.
The major issue is with the roster, the Lakers have been poor defensively, and their shooting is so bad that they are getting roasted on clips of random fans making half-court shots. For a long time, the Lakers have managed to get away with things like this because the franchise is such a coveted destination for free agents. But with the way they have been trending since last season, attracting any of the better players who might be bought out close to the trade deadline seems like a long shot.
Anonymous NBA Executive Reveals Lakers Will Struggle To Get Good Players To Join
The pull of playing in Los Angeles and alongside LeBron James may have been strong in the past, but that might not be the case now. As reported by Sean Deveney of Heavy.com, an NBA executive said the team will struggle to get really good players around the trade deadline.
“It will be interesting to see what the buyout market might present them going forward because, in the past few years, they have sold some players on the prospect of playing with LeBron and going deep in the playoffs. But they haven’t done that, so at this point, players are not going to believe them. They have almost relied on buyouts to boost their roster but it is not going to happen this year.
There might be a very limited number of guys who get buyouts for one thing, and if they’re valuable, they sure are not going to the Lakers if they want to win. They need someone who can score, badly. If they can get hold of a (Malik) Beasley or a (Doug) McDermott, they would have to jump at the chance. Garrison Matthews, is another possible guy. But they are not going to be the top spot for buyout guys the way they have been in the past.”
This will be a tough pill for the team to swallow, especially considering that LeBron James will desperately want to at least get back to the playoffs. The way things are going seems unlikely, and the King himself needs to improve his play going forward. What the Lakers can do in terms of additions will only matter if they are even relevant by the time the movement around the league begins.
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