Getty Lakers stars LeBron James (left) and Anthony Davis
No matter how the upcoming play-in tournament and subsequent playoffs go for the Lakers—barring a stunning run to the NBA Finals—it’s a near certainty that the team will have to consider drastic changes in the offseason. LeBron James can opt out of his contract, as can D’Angelo Russell and several of the team’s bench players. Coach Darvin Ham is on the hot seat.
The chatter that the Lakers are looking to put together a massive package around Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, plus other players and draft picks, persists. In other words, the hamster wheel that the Lakers have been on since winning their Covid-19 “bubble” championship will remain firmly in place.
But that is not what everyone wants. According to executives around the league, some within the Lakers prefer to see the franchise take a more conservative and, perhaps, wiser route—wipe the slate clean and start over.
“Let LeBron go, trade Anthony Davis, get the Klutch (Sports agency) influence out of there, collect draft picks and start over with young pieces and cap space,” one Western Conference executive said. “That is what they need. Something drastic. They’re in a loop they can’t get out of. There are more than a few people in that organization who want them to go that route but you know, they’re not at the top of the food chain.”
Lakers on a Downward Slide Since 2020
The Lakers went 52-19 in the Covid-19 season, and since then, they’ve gone 163-153. They had a run to the West finals last year that, in retrospect, looks increasingly like the product of a weak Western Conference—the Lakers were badly beaten by the Nuggets in the conference’s finale. They’ve had one other playoff appearance, in 2021, which ended in the first round.
“They’re not a bad team,” another executive said. “But they’re stuck. A lot of teams in the league are in the same situation. They’re 45, 46, 47-win teams but don’t have the means to get past that. The difference with the Lakers is that they’re old and they need a reset. It is probably going to get worse before it gets better. I think there are plenty of people in that building who know it, but they don’t want to say it.”
Mostly, they do not want to say it to team owner Jeanie Buss, who, to her credit, has carried on the Lakers’ star-chasing legacy that her father, Dr. Jerry Buss, carried out for so many years. But the realities of NBA salary cap rules have changed, and star chasing is a lot harder than it was in the 1980s and 1990s.
Losing LeBron James, Anthony Davis Would Be Difficult
There are, indeed, level heads in the Lakers organization who want to see the team let James, at age 40, play out his career elsewhere. There are those who do not want to see the team ship off more draft picks—the Lakers owe their 2024 or 2025 pick to New Orleans and their 2027 pick to Utah. There are those who would like to see the team shop Davis in earnest.
“That would be the big one, but once you’ve decided to let LeBron go, you should move AD with him,” the West executive said. “AD has value, a lot of value, and that is where you can really start your rebuild. But that is going to be a tough sell, even if it is a smart thing to do. They might have some PTSD about rebuilding.”
Certainly, in the waning years of Kobe Bryant’s career and after he retired, the Lakers were a wayward team, missing the playoffs for six straight years. James came in, eventually brought Davis with him and changed that. The reluctance on the part of Buss and others to go back to rebuilding is understandable.
Problem is, the Lakers, as constructed, are unsustainable. It probably won’t happen, but the time to start over might well be now.