NBA Playoff Obituary: The lost Los Angeles Lakers season

Now that the season has come to an end for the Los Angeles Lakers, it is time to write the obituary for the 2020-2021 season that was. Looking back on each team that made the playoffs will give a chance to look at what went right and what went wrong. It will also allow us to look ahead to what’s to come during the offseason to come.

The Los Angeles Lakers were the defending champions and looked like they got better in the offseason. After six games, the title defense is over.

There will be plenty of narratives and excuses made about why the Lakers were sent home early. Some of them will be valid, like lingering injuries derailing the seasons of their top two players and the quick turnaround after the bubble. Others will be just excuses and will lead to plenty of reconsidering moves the franchise made. What a weird season for the defending champions.

What Happened

Starting with the injuries, this was the rare time in his career that LeBron James suffered an injury that kept him out of the lineup for an extended period of time, missing 27 games over the season. Anthony Davis was similarly hobbled, missing 36 games and never quite got things going during the playoffs. This ultimately spelled disaster for the Lakers, as the size and dominance of Davis was key to any advantages, they would have hoped to exploit against the Phoenix Suns.

The offseason signings that were celebrated with aplomb never quite worked out. Dennis Schroeder struggled to mesh with the team and saw his efficiency plummet from a season ago. Montrezl Harrell, last season’s Sixth Man of the Year, was regularly played off the court. Marc Gasol and Wes Matthews took turns finding themselves out of the rotation.

Ultimately everything that could go wrong for the Lakers did. They boasted the best defensive rating in the league despite long absences from their top leaders but finished with the 24th ranked offense. Andre Drummond was brought in on the buyout market and never quiet fit in. Chances are changes are on the horizon.

What Comes Next

It may seem drastic to suggest an overhaul when the Lakers faced their worst-case scenario of a season and still finished with a dominant defense but this was not a championship roster. James rightfully expects to compete with the best every season and the roster will need to change to do that next year.

Schroeder, Matthews, Alex Caruso, Jared Dudley, Markieff Morris, Talen Horton-Tucker, Drummond, and Ben McLemore will all be free agents and Harrell could join them if he opts out of his contract. Schroeder has reportedly been expecting offers in the $20 million per season range which is not a choice the Lakers should make.

There will not be much cap space to work with, considering they have $102 million committed to James, Davis, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Kyle Kuzma. But players always want to play in Los Angeles and with LeBron James. Finding the best possible veterans to fill out their roster is the only option to keep up with a league that feels like the guard is changing.