Recently, Tyson Chandler commented on why the Los Angeles Lakers began to struggle this season after a solid start.
After a good start to the season, the Los Angeles Lakers fell short of expectations this season. Due to the signing of LeBron James, the Lakers instantly had the expectations of making the playoffs this season.
Since James had made it to eight straight finals coming into the season, making the playoffs seemed like once again this season. However, despite a strong start to the season, the Lakers will now be a lottery team rather than a playoff team. Also, the lengthy streak of James making the playoffs has come to an end.
There have been two main reasons why the Lakers have struggled this season, as they were decimated by injuries and took trade rumors hard. Recently, Tyson Chandler talked about these two things affecting the team. Here’s what he had to say via Matthew Moreno of LakersNation.com.
"“You can point fingers at all the trade dialogue that was going,” Chandler said of the Lakers’ struggles this season. Though, he ultimately felt not being healthy was much more of a factor. I honestly think, yeah, that was a distraction. It’s always a distraction for every team at that time of the year. But for us, if we have a full cast, it’s not as big a distraction as it was. We got hit by the injury bug.”"
Both of these reasons are certainly why the Lakers struggled this season, but the injuries were what really did them in. At Christmas, the Lakers were fourth in the Western Conference and things were going very well.
However, injuries on Christmas to Rajon Rondo and LeBron James resulted in the team really falling apart. Right around the time when James and Rondo came back, the Lakers then lost Lonzo Ball for what ended up being the rest of the season. Brandon Ingram also missed time during the season and was recently ruled out for the rest of the season as well.
In addition to all of the injuries, the Anthony Davis rumors at the NBA Trade Deadline really seemed to hurt the chemistry. While the Lakers got off to a good start, this season has become a failure for them. Now, we will have to wait and see what type of changes happen in the offseason. More than likely, the Lakers will have a lot of new faces come next season.