The L.A. Lakers' season was pronounced dead on arrival shortly after midnight Eastern time after the Phoenix Suns--who had already clinched the NBA's best regular season record by a large margin--defeated the Lakers 121-110. The Lakers thus played their way out of the Play-In Tournament, and into what will probably be a tumultuous offseason. LeBron James sat on the bench wearing sunglasses, unable to play due to an ankle injury. James has played just 56 games this season with three games remaining on the schedule; he will not be eligible for this season's scoring title unless he plays in at least two of the remaining games. James is 1325 points away from tying Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's regular season career scoring record. If James can keep his body from falling apart, he still has enough skills remaining to easily score 1325 points--but he has played 67 games or less in each of the past four seasons (although it should be noted that two of those seasons did not last the full 82 games due to the COVID-19 schedule changes).
There will be plenty of time to analyze the Suns--who seem poised for a deep playoff run--so for now it suffices to say that they are superior to the Lakers in terms of coaching, team chemistry, and having a more well-balanced roster. Oh, one other thing: I have been saying for over a decade that Chris Paul will never be the best player on a championship team--and we have not seen anything this season that refutes that notion, because there is no doubt that the Suns' best player is Devin Booker, who is putting up one of the most under the radar MVP-caliber seasons that we have seen in a long time.
All that remains now for the 2022 Lakers is assigning blame, but that is a significant detail to James, who whines and cries about how much "respect" he is given more than any other athlete of his historical status. James established himself as a member of pro basketball's Pantheon a long time ago, and it should be beneath him to proclaim himself to be the greatest basketball player of all-time, but he is laser-focused on how he is described and characterized. There is a big difference between trying to prove that you are the greatest basketball player--something that both Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant did--and repeatedly declaring that you are the greatest basketball player. Actions mean much more than words in this context.
The assigning of blame is important to James, because he will not allow his legacy to be tainted by the Lakers' train wreck season. It is fascinating to see how much James craves power and recognition while shirking responsibility. I have referred to him this season as the Lakers' General Manager/Coach/Team Captain/P.R. Director/Self-Proclaimed Greatest Player of All-Time; that is obviously a tongue in cheek reference, yet it contains more than a grain of truth: James played a major role in building this roster, he has proven on more than one occasion with more than one team that he prefers to coach himself as opposed to being coached, and he has spent at least as much time this season trying to burnish his legacy/do damage control as he has trying to figure out how to win games.
All of these things can be (and are) simultaneously true:
1) LeBron James is one of the 10 greatest players of all-time. Nothing that happens as his career winds down will diminish the status that he has already established.
2) LeBron James brings drama with him wherever he plays (we all know who Pat Riley was talking about when he referred to "smiling faces with hidden agendas," and I cannot recall Riley ever using such words to describe any other great player that has played for one of his teams).
3) LeBron James, at 37 years old and in his 19th season, is physically capable of doing things on a basketball court that no other player in history could do at his age and/or years of service (the 38 year old Michael Jordan, in his 14th season after two retirements, averaged 22.9 ppg while shooting .416 from the field in 60 games; James has averaged 30.3 ppg this season while shooting .524 from the field in 56 games).
4) LeBron James' body is breaking down from the standpoint of being able to play a full season; he is not immune to the ravages of time and mileage, and he is now experiencing what previously befell Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, and every other great player who tried to sustain heavy minutes/heavy production past the age of 35.
5) James is still highly productive individually when he is able to play, but the missed games, the lack of consistent defensive effort, and the focus on so many things other than team success combine to limit the effectiveness of his leadership from the standpoint of team success. A player who is conserving his body to break the all-time scoring record cannot convince his teammates that it is important to sacrifice individual goals for team success, or that it is important to do "little things" like playing hard all the time, and focusing on defense.
6) There is no way that James and his friends in the media will permit him to be blamed for the Lakers' problems. The narrative is already set: heroic elder statesman did everything he could to carry a deficient, poorly coached roster to the playoffs, but his body betrayed him--despite the $1 million per year that he spends on maintenance (note that the media will emphasize that James' injuries are despite all of his heroic efforts to preserve his body)--and no one else on the team stepped up to save the day.
Before I assign blame for one of the most disappointing team performances in NBA history, I have to acknowledge that I predicted that the Lakers would be the best team in the West, declaring, "If James, Davis, and Westbrook are healthy during the playoffs then this team will be very difficult to beat. Concerns about chemistry and on-court fit will be proven to be baseless if the Big Three players are healthy...If the Lakers are healthy, they will win the West, and it would be fascinating to see prime Giannis Antetokounmpo versus elder statesman LeBron James in the NBA Finals."
I could correctly note that I clearly based my prediction on the Lakers being healthy, but honesty forces me to admit that I did not conceive of the Lakers being this bad even if I would have known in advance how many games James and Anthony Davis would miss--not to mention that the Lakers were, at best, a .500 team this season even at full strength.
What did I misevaluate about the Lakers? Let me count the ways:
1) The 2020 "bubble title" fooled me. When James fled Cleveland for L.A., I assumed that he had gone Hollywood, and was more interested in glitz/glamour than in winning more championships, particularly since he kept insisting that the 2016 championship cemented his greatest ever status. Even after acquiring Davis, the Lakers did not look consistently great during the 2020 season, but the COVID-19 pause helped them to regain some energy, and they did just enough to win the "bubble title." I should have realized that a fourth title with a third different team is probably enough to satisfy James, particularly since it is unlikely that he can match Jordan's six titles (never mind that the record is not six, but 11, held by Bill Russell). I expected James to do whatever it takes to help this team win; instead, James did whatever he could do to march toward the magic 38,387 number.
For the Lakers to be successful with this roster, they needed to defend, control the boards, and push the ball, with Russell Westbrook handling the ball in the middle while James and Davis filled the lanes. If the opposing team stopped the initial fastbreak, then James or Davis could pound away in the paint, the way that they did to win the "bubble title."
Instead, James relegated Westbrook to standing in the corner spotting up for three pointers. By the way, did you know that Westbrook shot a career-high .438 on corner three pointers this season? Of course you don't know that, because that does not fit the narratives that Westbrook is (1) uncoachable, (2) unwilling to adjust how he plays, and (3) can't shoot. GM/Coach LeBron James decided to turn one of the league's most dangerous open court players into Kyle Korver. Westbrook did not complain; he went to the corner, and became the best corner three point shooter he could be.
Meanwhile, James attempted a career-high 8.0 three pointers per game this season; instead of attacking the paint the way he did during each of his championship seasons, he jacked up three pointers, hoping to preserve his body while gaining on Abdul-Jabbar three non-contact points at a time.
2) I knew that Anthony Davis, mentally, is the 2020s version of Pau Gasol--a very talented player who can play inside but prefers to drift outside, and who will only come close to his potential if someone else pushes him (a key difference is that prime Gasol was very durable, while Davis has always been brittle). However, the "bubble title" fooled me into thinking that maybe Davis actually wants to be 1B to James' 1A for another season or two before becoming 1A after James retires. Perhaps the biggest disappointment for the Lakers this season is how lackadaisically Davis--the only member of the "Big Three" who is squarely in his physical prime--played even when he was healthy. This is not about numbers--this is about impact. Davis drifted through games even before he was hurt every other minute. The Lakers needed him to dominate the paint on both offense and defense, and that rarely happened this season.
3) If James averaged 25 ppg, Davis averaged 25 ppg, and Westbrook averaged 20 ppg then the Lakers only needed about 35 ppg from the rest of the roster, assuming that they played good enough defense to hold teams to 105 ppg or less. I did not have outlandish expectations for the rest of the roster, but I thought that they could deliver 35 ppg. Instead, James and Davis did not produce 25 ppg each (when you factor in all of the zero point games--i.e., the games that they missed), Westbrook produced a solid 18.4 ppg despite being misused, and the rest of the roster struggled to score consistently or efficiently. To make things worse, the leaky defense yielded 114.8 ppg (26th worst in a 30 team league).
Add that all up--James not playing the right way while also forcing Westbrook out of his proper role, Davis playing indifferently in between his frequent injuries, and the team's inefficient offense being incapable of overcoming the team's horrific defense--and you have a 31-48 team that is out of contention even for 10th place in the West with three games left.
Imagine for a moment that Kobe Bryant presided over this kind of a disaster, never mind if he kept calling himself the greatest player of all-time as his team sank like the Titanic. In that scenario, would the media be latching onto the team's third option as the reason for all of the losing?
We keep hearing a lot of nonsense about Westbrook being washed up, but he is not the guy who missed major chunks of the season and whose body parts are regularly failing him. Westbrook has played 78 out of 79 games so far. His field goal percentage and rpg average are better than his career norms. He averaged 7.1 apg despite James monopolizing the ball and despite being surrounded by the gang that can't shoot straight (which cost Westbrook a lot of assists). If Westbrook is washed up, then one would expect him to be wearing down now as the season draws to a close. Here are his field goal percentages in the past 10 games: 8-18 (.444), 10-15 (.667), 7-14 (.500), 10-20 (.500) 8-15 (.533), 9-17 (.529), 9-18 (.500), 5-15 (.333), 11-15 (.733), 10-20 (.500). That adds up to 87-167 (.521). The eye test shows that Westbrook can still push the ball up the court with great pace, he can still get into the lane, and finish at the rim, and he even can still make his trademark pull up midrange jumper. Ignorant reporters asked him not too long ago how he can remain confident about his shooting (apparently not realizing that his corner three point field goal percentage is great and his overall field goal percentage is at its normal levels), and Westbrook sensibly replied that he remains confident because he has scored over 23,000 career points. Here are some players who scored fewer career regular season points than Westbrook: Adrian Dantley, Dwyane Wade, Elgin Baylor, Clyde Drexler, Gary Payton, Larry Bird, Hal Greer, Walt Bellamy. Westbrook passed all of those players in the past two seasons; most of those players were at or near the end of the line when they reached the vicinity of 23,000 points, but Westbrook is still going strong. If Westbrook ends up on a team next season that uses him correctly, he could easily average 25 ppg.
Look at Westbrook's body language. Not only is his team suffering through an awful season, he is the only member of the "Big Three" who does not have a ring, and he is the main scapegoat for everything that has gone wrong--but despite that, he plays hard, he does not hang his head, he never throws a teammate or the coach under the bus, and when he speaks to the young players he tries to help/motivate, as opposed to criticize/blame. Go back and look at games when James played, and compare his interactions with his teammates to Westbrook's interactions. Turn the volume off so you don't hear Screamin' A, and you decide who is the better teammate and better leader. Have you ever heard a teammate or a coach say anything negative about Westbrook?
We all know what is going to happen next. Truth will be the first casualty, as James' media friends activate the "Save LeBron, destroy Westbrook and Vogel" narrative. The Lakers will likely fire Coach Frank Vogel, who won a championship just two years ago. Then, General Manager James will try to figure out who he wants to play with next season so that he can make it through 50-60 games and break Abdul-Jabbar's record before his body completely gives out. If the record is to be broken, the Lakers will want James to be a Laker when he breaks it, so they will cater to James' every whim regarding the coaching staff and the roster.