Just a few years ago, the Los Angeles Lakers were at the peak of their basketball experience, winning their 17th championship during a season mired with chaos and mayhem.
Back then, Anthony Davis looked like one of the best players in basketball and the future of a franchise that was riding the coattails of an almost 40-year-old LeBron James.
Now, the Lakers are on track to be one of the league’s worst teams and Davis has done little to change that.
NBA Analyst Says The Lakers Should Trade Everyone And Start Over Completely
The Lakers are 0-3 so far, there is still time for L.A. to turn things around, but there is a sense that they might be better off blowing it up instead. On SiriusXM NBA Radio, Jay Williams (former player turned analyst) got real on the Lakers and explained why it may be time to trade everyone and start from scratch.
“I pulled up articles back in 2019, do you know what some of these articles said when Anthony Davis got traded to the Lakers? ‘This is the bets trade the Lakers have made in the history of the organization.’ Now that’s putting you in the same category as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Pau Gasol. I remember thinking to myself back in 2019, ‘damn this is incredible. When LeBron ages out, AD’s gonna be that dude that’s gonna carry the torch for them. And people were saying top five player in the league. When’s the last time that we have mentioned the name Anthony Davis in the MVP conversation?… So I’m looking at this whole organization saying I’m sorry, it you’re talking about maintaining the franchise’s success, if we really wanna be cold-hearted about this, everybody should be on the table. What can I get for LeBron James? What can I get for Anthony Davis? What can I get for Russell Westbrook? We’re thinking about the future…”
After a 0-3 start for the Lakers, @RealJayWilliams believes it's time to blow it up in L.A.@RickKamlaSports| @adaniels33 pic.twitter.com/EgblQWnvyT
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) October 25, 2022
On paper, it sounds pretty crazy for a team with LeBron James and Anthony Davis to just give up like that. But what else have they got to lose? If the Lakers traded Davis, Westbrook, and all their other tradeable assets right now, would they really be that much worse?
It’s certainly the last-case scenario for the Lakers, but one that can’t be completely off the table for them. As the season rolls on, every game the Lakers lose will be another step closer towards a total and complete rebuild.
