Getty LeBron James #6 of the Los Angeles Lakers and Anthony Davis #3 of the Los Angeles Lakers in the third quarter at Crypto.com Arena on February 05, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
The Los Angeles Lakers won’t win the championship this season with their current roster and it appears the players and coaches know it.
Despite All-Stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis putting up incredible numbers, their supporting cast isn’t good enough to compete for a title and the Lakers’ starting point guard — who used to be a superstar and was expected to be one this season — has seemingly forgotten how to play effective basketball.
The defending champion Milwaukee Bucks blew out the Lakers by a final score of 131-116 at Crypto.com Arena on February 8. The purple and gold are in ninth place in the Western Conference standings and 4.5 games back of the Denver Nuggets for the sixth spot.
The seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th seeds will participate in the play-in tournament to determine who the seventh and eighth seeds are in the 2022 Western Conference playoffs.
According to Bill Oram of The Athletic, the tone in the Lakers’ locker room after the Bucks game was that the team requires immediate action ahead of the trade deadline and the franchise can’t win with their $44 million offseason acquisition despite how great LeBron and Davis are.
Lakers No Longer Believe They Can Win with Russell Westbrook
Oram reports that the Lakers no longer believe they can win at a high level with Russell Westbrook alongside LeBron and Davis. The one-time MVP is averaging 10.3 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.0 assists while shooting 27.5% from the field and 15.4% from beyond the arc over his last four games and was benched in overtime against the New York Knicks and didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter versus the Bucks.
“Sources have indicated that the Lakers no longer believe they can win at a high level with Westbrook alongside James and Davis, but prior to Tuesday the line of thinking was that the Lakers would be unwilling to wave the white flag and admit their summer blockbuster was a failure,” Oram wrote. “Instead, they would prefer to wait until the offseason, when they could also include a 2029 pick in a potential deal for another max-contract player looking for a new home.”
Westbrook is averaging 18.3 points, 7.8 rebounds and 7.6 assists for the Lakers. He leads the NBA in turnovers and is shooting 43.5% from the floor, 29.8% from 3-point range and 66.5% from the free-throw line.
The only realistic trade of Westbrook at this venture is to the Houston Rockets for John Wall, who hasn’t played this season. LeBron, who had a hand in the construction of the roster in the offseason on everything from the Westbrook trade to free-agent signings, revealed to reporters following the Bucks game what his mindset is on Russ and the team moving forward.
LeBron Talks About Westbrook, Lakers
LeBron is averaging 29.0 points, 7.7 rebounds and 6.4 assists on the season. However, the Lakers are 26-29 and 20th in net rating. The four-time MVP said the Lakers aren’t on the same level as the Bucks and that he and Davis need to do more to help Westbrook succeed.
“Listen, I want to help AD, I want to help Russ,” LeBron said, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “AD wants to help me, help Russ, and Russ wants to help us,” James said. “Obviously, lately, Russ hasn’t felt like he had an opportunity or with the opportunities he’s been given he hasn’t helped us as much as he would like. We haven’t done a great job of helping him.”
The Lakers’ Westbrook problem likely won’t go away this season since no team probably wants to acquire a $44 million player who is a major shelf of himself. With that said, LeBron, Davis and the rest of the players and organization can only hope that Westbrook rediscovers his magic after the All-Star break.