Los Angeles Lakers: What’s next for LeBron, Westbrook, and the Lakers?
By Alex Mcewen
The Los Angeles Lakers’ problems were not all Russell Westbrook’s fault; LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Frank Vogel, and the front office equally share the blame.
Once again, the Los Angeles Lakers will be sitting at home once the NBA regular season concludes. Dating back to the 2013-14 season, the Lakers have missed the playoffs in seven of the last nine NBA seasons, which is nearly 10 years of examples outlining just how far the Lakers have fallen from their dynasty days. Yes, I am aware of the title they won in the bubble.
With that well in perspective, one title during extreme extenuating circumstances due to the pandemic does excuse nearly a decade of mediocrity. LA is still viewed as a premier franchise given their history and elite location that is Los Angeles, due to that fact, and they currently have LeBron James, along with Russell Westbrook, and Anthony Davis on the roster their expectations have been reasonably high.
The problem with those high expectations is the trio did not fit well together, at least we do not think they did. The trio only played a mere 21 games, good for 393 minutes together as a three-man lineup. For context, with roughly one week left in the regular season, 423 three-man lineups have played at least 400 minutes together.
LeBron, Russ, and AD did not fall into that bracket, if you extend the numbers to fit the number of minutes they played together you get 457 three-man lineups logging 390 or more minutes together. Furthermore, among the 457 qualified lineups, the Lakers trio ranks 382nd in plus-minus at minus-34.