LeBron James has not been able to compete for a championship with the Los Angeles Lakers since the 2019-20 season. The team made the playoffs and got eliminated in the first round in the 2020-21 season while missing the playoffs entirely in the 2021-22 season. Despite those struggles, LeBron James ended up signing a contract extension with the Los Angeles Lakers this past offseason.
Recently, Richard Jefferson critiqued LeBron James for signing his two-year, $97.1 million extension with the Lakers. Jefferson claimed that this was the biggest mistake of LeBron James’ career.
I feel like him signing that extension was the biggest mistake that he’s made in his career. I stand by that…Signing this extension last summer, it was just so confusing to me.
I think he did it because he was committed to the organization. I know you got two picks, I’m going to show you my commitment to you, so that you can go make some moves. We knew what this team was a year ago, last year. They haven’t added any tangible pieces… The formula has been shown for two decades, how to win with LeBron. And they have thrown that all the way.
There is no doubt that Richard Jefferson has a point. The Los Angeles Lakers have been unable to construct a competitive roster around LeBron James, and it doesn’t look as though the team will even make the playoffs this year.
With that being said, the Los Angeles Lakers could end up making moves in the future. They have recently inquired with the Spurs about Josh Richardson and Doug McDermott, and perhaps that is a move that can help them this year.
The Los Angeles Lakers Are Supposedly Waiting On A Mystery Player To Trade Their Picks
The Los Angeles Lakers may have some trade options right now, but they have held off on making a trade thus far. Perhaps part of the reason that the Lakers have resisted making a move is that there is a specific mystery player that they’d like to acquire with their tradeable draft picks.
“I will add one thing without going into all the detail, but I was canvassing a bunch of front office folks last week when I was workshopping my idea of ‘Can the Nets tear down now? Should they just tear down now? What could they reasonably get for Kevin Durant? Could they get anything for Kyrie Irving? Could they get anything at all for Ben Simmons?’” said Beck. “And in those discussions, when I brought up the Lakers, the pushback I was getting was they’re waiting for a specific player. That they’re not doing the Pacer deal, that they won’t do the Kyrie deal now that we for sure thought they would do a couple months ago, is an indication that the Lakers are waiting for a bigger piece to come loose that they think they can trade Westbrook and the two future firsts for.”
It remains to be seen if the Los Angeles Lakers will be able to construct a better roster around LeBron James in the future. He and Anthony Davis still make up one of the best duos in the league, and a team built around them still has the potential to get far in the playoffs.
Hopefully, we see the Los Angeles Lakers become a more competitive team, whether it comes from internal improvement or an external move. They are one of the best defensive teams in the league right now, and hopefully, they’ll find a way to improve their offense.
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