With LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony, and others, the Los Angeles Lakers have one of the bests rosters in the NBA. On paper, their talent and experience appear unmatched.
On the court, however, the Lakers are struggling to show it.
With a 5-5 record through the first 10 games, L.A. is facing a lot of questions about their future, as many flaws have been made known over the past few weeks.
After their latest loss against Portland, not even head coach Frank Vogel could mince words about the condition of his team:
“When we’re on the court, we just got to play harder. Every possession has to matter. We just got to play harder, that’s it,” Vogel said, via Damian Burchardt of Lakers Nation.
“If we’re gonna win, we have to stay humble,” Vogel continued. “We’re not the championship team we want to be right now, so in order to get there, we have to stay humble. It’s not a knock on who we are as players. It’s just as a team, if you want to win at any level, you got to stay humble.”
Vogel isn’t the only one to feel that way about the 17x Champions. Since the start of the season, doubters have grown in number.
“Frankly? They’re not very good,” said one NBA executive. “Not by LeBron-and-the-Lakers standards. They’re old. They’re poorly put together as a team. LeBron, as he always did, brought in a bunch of guys he wanted to play with instead of who he should play with. It’s the same story. Rob (Pelinka) didn’t put together that team, LeBron did. And I’m not sure he’s still going to be able to make up for that. Honestly, they’re a shit show.”
The saving grace in all of this is LeBron James. We’ve seen him work countless miracles in the past, but can he do it again with this Lakers team?
At 36-years-old, the odds are certainly not in his favor, but it’s probably not a good idea to bet against him.
