Getty Russell Westbrook and LeBron James, Lakers
The Lakers have lost seven of their last 10 to fall four games under .500 at 27-31.
They now occupy the ninth seed in the NBA‘s Western Conference, and it seems the only way they’ll avoid the play-in tournament is to slide all the way out of the expanded postseason altogether.
Their roster is so old, the Golden Girls would be a more age-appropriate accompaniment than the Laker Girls.
Their postgame press conferences are appointment viewing, if only to see who’s going to get hit with verbal shrapnel.
On any given morning, the club’s latest obituary can be found in newspapers and on websites.
But not here. Not yet.
And I have to believe the Lakers’ potential playoff opponents are whistling past the graveyard, wary of LeBron James in a hockey mask.
Game on the line. @KingJames finished it.
A Feel-Bad Hollywood Story
This is, however, not to say the elements of a Hollywood feel-bad story aren’t in place here. All over the place, in fact.
Amid reports that LeBron’s representatives at Klutch Sports are unhappy with Laker general manager Rob Pelinka, King James took the opportunity at All-Star weekend to heap praise on Thunder head of operations Sam Presti for his ability to draft and build teams. This was after he jumped on social media to laud the L.A. Rams’ Les Snead, who dealt away first round picks to create a Super Bowl champion. Snead wore a t-shirt that read “F*** them picks” to the celebration, and LeBron f****** loved it.
This latter LeTweet is being seen as rather shade-worthy, coming on the heels of word that Team James is unhappy Pelinka didn’t give up a first-round pick with Russell Westbrook to spring John Wall from Houston. The Lakers are already without their 2022 and 2024 first-rounders, and they gave New Orleans the right to swap first round positions in 2023 as part of getting Anthony Davis.
Bobby Marks of ESPN noted that when James was playing for Cleveland (twice), Miami and the Lakers, those teams traded away a total of 15 first round draft picks to please and support him.
After LeBron’s first season in L.A. was a 37-45 fiasco, Pelinka acquired Davis and the next season’s championship — a bubble bonanza.
Following last year’s first round exit, the Lakers seemingly stayed up late one night with a credit card and a bottle of tequila. They shopped till they dropped (in the standings).
The Team LeBron Wanted
With LeBron’s blessing — or directive, as three league execs characterized it to us — Pelinka went out and got not so much a who’s who, but a who used to be. That may be a tad harsh, though no one would think it unfair to say Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony, Avery Bradley and Dwight Howard are teeing it up well onto their respective back nines. (The Lakers signed a 35-year-old Rajon Rondo last summer and traded him a month and a half before he turns 36 on February 22.)
Due to the candle count, Laker birthdays have been known to set off the sprinkler system at the team’s practice facility.
But …
While Westbrook hasn’t seemed to fit, he and the rest of the AARP All-Stars are built better for the playoffs, when there is limited travel and no back-to-backs. When it slows to more of a possession game than a track meet, experience is valued. Melo can still make big shots.
And as long as LeBron — at 37, no spring king himself — and AD are of reasonable health, the Lakers are a team that will elicit concern from their postseason opponent.
They will harder to beat then than it might appear now.
If they don’t crumble from the inside beforehand.