Los Angeles Lakers: Is LA beginning to wave the white flag on the season?

With the potential of placing LeBron James on a minutes-restriction and limiting his availability, the Los Angeles Lakers appear to be waving the white flag on the season

With less than 20 games remaining in the regular season, the Los Angeles Lakers are currently 6.5 games back of the 8th and final playoff spot. Short of running the table, and still getting some help, the Lakers likely won’t make the playoffs this season.

So much so, that the team is reportedly beginning to think hard about waving the proverbial white flag as the final month of the NBA’s regular season gets underway.

According to Yahoo Sports, the Lakers are expected to place LeBron on a minutes-restriction and hold him out of the team’s remaining back-to-backs.

This is probably the Lakers waving the white flag on their pursuit for a playoff spot in the Western Conference, and it really is quite sad. With the way that this season began for the Lakers, who were sitting in the fourth seed on Christmas Day, after a huge victory over the Golden State Warriors, the fact that Los Angeles won’t qualify for the playoffs is extremely disappointing.

Even though a big reason why the Lakers will fall short of post-season play this season is the injury to LeBron, who faced him to miss roughly 20 games during January and February, that won’t be remembered.

This season will simply be remembered as the season in which LeBron missed the playoffs. And no matter what you think about his legacy, there’s no question that this season will be an unfortunate stain on an otherwise great run for LeBron.

At the same time, this could all be put in the back-burners if he can somehow will this team to a championship in the next year or two, however that is looking more and more unlikely considering that this team still has a talent issue, and their young pieces are exactly progressing as many thought they’d be under the tutelage of LeBron.

One thing is for sure, I don’t think there’s anyone that believes this roster will be the same one that enters the season next year. Question is, will next year’s carry another superstar? If not, then perhaps next year’s outcome won’t be much different.