Los Angeles Lakers: 3 takeaways the Pacers loss magnified
1. Can the locker room reconcile their problems?
The last week-plus for the Los Angeles Lakers has been a tense time for everybody in the locker room. From the young core hearing their names in trade offers for the first time to the veterans and head coach exchanging words, the Lakers have been in the headlines for everything but their struggling on-court play.
LeBron James wields power on any team he’s on, so the Klutch Sports connection with Anthony Davis led to a requested and preferred trade orchestrated by Rich Paul to the Lakers with the young core going in the other direction. Those young players may see themselves as pawns in LeBron’s plan to build a super-team now.
Trading them for AD makes sense, though. None of those players will be near the player the Brow is, and he’s only 25 years old. That realization for Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma is the moment they will have to look out for themselves and perhaps even request trades of their own if they remain into the summer.
The Lakers have reportedly are waiting for a counteroffer from the New Orleans Pelicans, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. They are young, but understand it’s a business. That still doesn’t guarantee everything will return to perfect if the Pelicans trade doesn’t progress, and this one photo defines the current state of the team:
This doesn’t even mention the looming cloud over head coach Luke Walton’s job. Fair or not, this team has underachieved and injuries can’t be the lone reason.
Even the leaks of trade talk have been a story. The Lakers could have not leaked everything to the media, kept the trade under wraps and these talks wouldn’t be public knowledge with crowds chanting at them, or media members asking them 10 questions a day about the trade rumors.
Like everything in the NBA, the Lakers will ride on the back of LeBron. He hasn’t missed the playoffs since his rookie season and is the leader of the team. He’s the tone-setter and players feed off of his energy. That’s why his defensive effort, or lack thereof, against Indiana was frustrating.
In an important road game to start off a road trip, he was jogging back in transition, not fighting on the boards and overall seemed disinterested in the game. Expect a bounce-back game from the King, but it’s up to him to air out some issues and get the young guys on board with the remaining games in the season, or the trade rumors will be the point the season imploded.