In a recent chat on the ‘Games with Names’ podcast, Lakers owner/governor Jeanie Buss shed some light on the summer of 2020. The team was weeks removed from winning their 17th championship and, in a move that Buss regrets, they broke up the roster to sign other players that they liked better at the time.
“I will say that I kind of came from the philosophy kind of inspired by Phil Jackson that when a team wins a championship, they should have the right to defend their championship,” Buss said. “And we didn’t do that. And I regret that. And one of the players on the list — Markieff Morris — just rejoined the team in the trade for Luka [Doncic]. He was one of the players that came. And I told him I said, ‘I’m really sorry that we didn’t get a chance for you to defend that championship. And I’m really glad you’re here.’ So, we just obviously didn’t win a championship the following year.”
After acquiring Anthony Davis in 2019, the Lakers went 52-19 in the shortened regular season and followed it up in the playoffs with a miraculous run to the NBA Finals. They beat the Miami Heat in six games, capturing their 17th championship in franchise history.
The full roster included LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kyle Kuzma, Dwight Howard, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Alex Caruso, Rajon Rondo, Danny Green, Markieff Morris, Talen Horton-Tucker, J.R. Smith, Jared Dudley, Quinn Cook, Avery Bradley, and JaVale McGee.
Despite winning the title that year, Lakers GM Rob Pelinka elected not to run it back. Instead, he broke up the roster in an attempt to maximize the chances for a repeat. The Lakers basically replaced their entire depth chart over the span of a few months.
Bradley, Rondo, Howard, Cook, Smith, and Waiters were all let go in free agency while Danny Green and JaVale McGee were traded away to different teams. In their place, the Lakers added Marc Gasol, Montrezl Harrell, Wesley Matthews, Alfonzo McKinnie, and Dennis Schroder.
Things did not go nearly as smoothly for the Lake Show in that campaign. With a different roster, they lacked the chemistry, and many of the players they brought in failed to live up to expectations. That season, the Lakers finished 7th in the West at 42-30. They lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Phoenix Suns.
To this day, many fans and players believe the Lakers were wrong to break up that championship core. Dwight Howard has called out the franchise several times and now it seems even Jeanie Buss is having some regrets over not giving that group a chance to defend their title.
Today, the Lakers are almost unrecognizable from that 2020 squad but they struck gold with the acquisition of Luka Doncic. His presence (along with the impact of LeBron James) has put the Lakers back in play for another title and the belief is strong that they can get it done.
If they do go on to win, or at least get close, let’s hope that they learned their lesson about continuity so that they can maintain their position for the next few years to come.
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