4. Los Angeles Lakers
Even though the Los Angeles Lakers didn’t enter the offseason with that much expectation, the thought was that this team would be able to retool the roster around LeBron James and Anthony Davis at some point to change the trajectory of their hopes this season. That didn’t happen until the NBA Trade Deadline when it was likely too late anyways.
The injury to LeBron James didn’t help any either. He’s expected to miss the next three weeks (at least) and there’s a good chance that he isn’t going to be back before the postseason. Even if the Lakers do make the playoffs, which is going to be a difficult task in itself, it would be extremely surprising if they made it out of the first round.
No matter how you cut it up, this is going to be viewed as a disappointing season for the Lakers. That makes it now two years in a row that the Lakers have failed to build properly around LeBron James. Not great.