Los Angeles Lakers: Two biggest reasons they’re in 10th place

The Los Angeles Lakers playoff hopes are almost dashed, and these two reasons are the main culprits for why.

The Los Angeles Lakers just lost to the league-worst Phoenix Suns and have a record of 30-33, good for 10th place out west.

Furthermore, ESPN now gives the Lakers less than one percent chance of sneaking into the playoffs as the 8th seed out west, which means it’s almost impossible for the Purple and Gold to make the postseason and help the Warriors warm up for their eventual run up to the finals.

There are many reasons why the Lakers have fallen down and broken their hip over the last 15 games, but there are two causes that really stick out.

Los Angeles Lakers — (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)

No. 1: Lonzo Ball’s been injured

In another universe, Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka would have signed a good backup point guard and shooting guard over the summer. Here’s a list of some of the free agent guards that were available:

(You can decide which three players you think would have been the best fits on the Purple and Gold: I would have signed Seth Curry, Elfrid Payton, and Tyreke Evans.)

Unfortunately, we’re all stuck in this world, where Magic and Pelinka decided to dish out $9 million for Rajon Rondo and $12 million for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

Rondo and KCP have been breathtakingly bad since the All-Star break, but I must admit there’s been a certain comfort in watching them play. It’s been like watching a Marvel superhero film because we all know the superhero is going to start the movie off on a high, then his world will be shattered during the middle of the film, and finally, in the end, he’ll beat the bad guy and come out on top.

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Instead of the generic superhero course of action taking place during Lakers games, another, equally uninspired theme occurs every time Rondo and KCP step on the court: one of them plays bad defense and their man scores, then one of them misses a wide-open 3-pointer on the other end: rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.

I already know what’s going to happen when Rondo and KCP play, which seems to really mitigate my anger as I watch the Lakers flounder around and lose to a bunch of teams who are tanking and trying to lose games.

Look at some of their stats since the All-Star break:

Rondo: 26 3P%
KCP: 20 3P%
Rondo: 115.2 DEFRTG (worst on the team)
KCP: 114 DEFRTG (3rd worst on the team)
Rondo: -16.8 NETRTG (2nd worst on the team)
KCP: -20.7 NETRTG (worst on the team)

The truly sad part about Rondo and KCP’s NETRTG’s is that Josh Hart has the 3rd worst NETRTG on the team at -6.4. The gap between Rondo and Hart is 10 points and the gap between KCP and Hart is 14 points. WOW!

Needless to say, the Lakers really, truly, seriously miss Lonzo Ball. Since the All-Star break the Lakers, as a team, have a net rating of -4.5. I bet just adding in Ball’s defense and superior 3-point shooting (that’s not a joke) would have raised the Lakers NETRTG to -0.5 or even +1.5.

Lonzo Ball is so much better than KCP and Rondo that he alone could have helped the Lakers to a 5-1 record or a 6-0 record since the All-Star game.

Check out all of the opposing point guard’s points scored against the Lakers since the all-star break:

VS Rockets: James. Harden 30 points (team high)
@Pelicans: Jrue. Holiday 27 points (team high)
@Grizzlies: Mike. Conley 30 points (team high)
VS Pelicans: J. Holiday 19 points (+/- +13)
VS Bucks: Eric. Bledsoe 31 points (team high)
@ Suns: (They don’t start a point guard, but Devin Booker is their de facto starting PG) D. Booker 25 points (2nd on the team)

2. Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka have done an AWFUL job this year

It seems like after Magic and Pelinka signed LeBron this summer, it gave them enough manna to cast a protection spell over themselves that’s been very hard for the media to penetrate.

I’m going to try to use an enchantment to break through their defense and show how bad they’ve been. Here’s what Magic and Pelinka have done since they signed LeBron.

Signed Rondo to a 1-year $9 million contract
Signed KCP to a 1-year $12 million contract
Signed JaVale McGee to a 1-year $2 million contract
Signed Lance Stephenson to a 1-year $4 million contract
Bought out Luol Deng
Drafted Moritz Wagner
Drafted Svi Mykhailiuk
Let Julius Randle walk
Let Brook Lopez walk
Signed Tyson Chandler after he was released from the Suns
Tried to trade the entire team for Anthony Davis (I don’t believe these new half-hearted, six weeks too late, attempts by the Lakers front office to say they didn’t offer up everyone on the team for Davis.)
Traded Svi for Reggie Bullock
Traded Ivica Zubac for Mike Muscala

That is a long list of awful moves surrounded by three good – but any other executive in the league would have done the same thing – deals.

"There’s an old African saying; “If you don’t think small things make a difference in life, try going to sleep with a mosquito in the room.”"

Magic and Pelinka got the best player available (Maybe) this summer, which was huge, but all of the small deals they’ve made, with the exception of the Bullock deal at the trade deadline, have been shortsighted, unrealistic, and simply put; bad.

Please note: I loved that the Lakers picked up Tyson Chandler early in the season, but everybody knows GM LeBron pulled off that deal.

Also please note: For all the conspiracy theorists out there; there is a tiny sliver of a chance that the Lakers are working with Adam Silver and the refs to pull off a super-secret tank job.

Think about it; the Lakers should have won their game in Memphis, but the refs blew that 8-second halfcourt violation against the Grizzlies in the waning moments of that game. When the refs missed that call it was the knockout punch for the Lakers.

Then against the Suns, the Lakers were down by three points during crunch time and once again the refs made one of the worst calls of the year and whistled Josh Hart for a foul when it was clear that Ayton was the one who fouled Hart. That also killed the Lakers.