Los Angeles Lakers: Magic Johnson’s biggest mistake of all

Los Angeles Lakers president of basketball operations, Magic Johnson, wasted no time in making his worst decision leading the franchise.

Magic Johnson faced two periods of criticism when he was a player for the Los Angeles Lakers in his Hall of Fame career. The first period was when Johnson railroaded Paul Westhead out of a job as head coach of the Lakers his second year in the NBA fresh off a championship run that turned off his teammates and fans alike.

The second period was back in 1984. Lakers fans remember, right? The NBA Finals loss to the Boston Celtics when he was more famously known as “Tragic Johnson”. Magic Johnson faced a ton of heat in those days and there weren’t any social media back then.

Well, there’s social media now and Magic Johnson is facing even more heat from fans, his players, potential free agents and his teammates in the front office. Even I have to eat my words on this fact.

Magic Johnson has failed this season and probably did a worse job than Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak before him. That’s a strong statement and in some ways, it’s the truth.

The Los Angeles Lakers are a dysfunctional franchise with no direction because of Magic Johnson’s ego and lack of work ethic. The culture surrounding this team is awful and the reputation of “toxic” no longer is attached to just LeBron James. It’s now surrounding the franchise.

The mistakes are endless. The promises are getting emptier and emptier. Magic Johnson is starting to look like that used car salesman that will sell you a car and when you get it home, you find the oil light on.

But, what’s even worse, it didn’t have to be this way.

The one move that would have gotten the Lakers into the playoffs, guaranteed, was if Magic Johnson would have allowed Jerry West back into the fold to help make the decisions on what the roster should look like.

It’s not like the Lakers didn’t have a chance to get West before the Clippers got to him in 2017…

"Before Buss hired Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka in February to lead the Lakers’ front office, West was regarded as a candidate to rejoin the mix, and those close to the Hall of Famer have indicated he was excited about a potential homecoming. “He wanted it more than anything,” one source said."

Boy, does karma come back and bite people at times, doesn’t it? Jerry West showed the NBA world who’s the better NBA executive based on that deadline trade that was going to get the Lakers that shooter they needed for a playoff run.

Lakers fans, remember, Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka traded Ivica Zubac, the Lakers most consistent big man, and Michael Beasley for Mike Muscala.

Zubac is contributing on a playoff team and getting rave reviews about his play. The Lakers outsmarted themselves opening a roster spot for Carmelo Anthony, who backed out and was left stuck with Muscala, who is shooting 31 percent from the field and 20 percent from distance.

Shoot, I knew that trade wasn’t going to work and I did a piece on Muscala trying to convince myself!

I wrote an article before the season started about the Lakers suffering from the “Jerry West” effect, but I didn’t think it would be this bad!

Believe it or not, this is not the first time Jerry West took full advantage of a Magic Johnson mistake. Everyone talks about D’Angelo Russell, Julius Randle and Brook Lopez.

Everyone forgets this guy.

Magic Johnson trades Lou Williams to the Houston Rockets

Remember this trade? Most people don’t attach this to the Magic Johnson resume because it happened literally hours after he was brought in with Rob Pelinka to replace Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak.

At that point and time, the Lakers could have brought three dogs and a pony to run the Lakers considering how happy fans were to be rid of what they had to deal with the previous five seasons.

In that trade, the Lakers received Corey Brewer and a first-round pick from the Rockets. The move was obviously used to tank the season for a high draft pick (Sound familiar?) that turned into Lonzo Ball. Corey Brewer finished the season with the Lakers and was released. He got a 10-day contract with the 76ers this year and is finishing out the season with the Sacramento Kings.

The only problem for the Lakers was that Lou Williams was having the best season of his career at the time, with highs in points (18.6 per game) and 3-point field goal percentage (.385). Also, he was leading the league in scoring off the bench at that point with 1,605 points.

Bottom line, Lou Williams was scoring so well at the time, that the Lakers had to get rid of him because he was winning games by himself at the time, messing with a possible high draft pick.

As soon as the season ends, Jerry West comes a calling and signs Lou Williams to a three-year contract. Less than six months later, Lou Williams is back in the Staples Center dropping 20 a night.

As of this writing, he is still easily one of the best bench players in the NBA and is the go-to guy for the Clippers in crunch time. He is well on his way to winning yet another Sixth Man Award at the end of the year.

Quietly, Lou Williams is the worst mistake the Lakers front office made in the Magic Johnson era, which reportedly, was three hours old.

Here’s why.

Lou Williams is a bonafide closer that LeBron needs

LeBron James has been criticized by not having that “clutch gene” to come through and hit the big shot. Why? Because LeBron James does not have a legitimate go-to move and his shot is very predictable.

Let’s go back no further than his last game against the New York Knicks.

https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1107363178751709185

If you see LeBron James again this season, these are LeBron James, typical moves. As you see here, if LeBron James goes to his left, the jump shot is coming. This is nothing new because Kobe Bryant stated it in an interview before an All-Star game back in 2013. Then he proved it by blocking his jumper…TWICE!

If LeBron goes to his right, he is going for the layup. If he holds the ball behind the 3-point line for a period of time, if he looks at the floor, more than likely the shot is going up. Finally, if his team is behind and he’s about to give up, he’ll shoot a fadeaway 3 pointer on the left-wing.

If I know these things, you don’t think NBA teams know? That’s why LeBron needs help down the stretch.

Let’s take a look at Lou Williams in crunch time against the Brooklyn Nets.

Lou Williams receives a pass from Danilo Gallinari and hits a fading shot going to his left and hits nothing but the bottom of the net and the Clippers win. Seems like an impossible shot right?

Nope.

That is Lou Williams’ go-to move. Everyone in the NBA tries to stop him from going to his left but few can stop it. Plus, he can also go to his right and pull up for a jumper as well. In addition, he can take the ball to the rim and score or get fouled. His fearlessness about accepting the challenge was taught to him by Allen Iverson when Williams was drafted by Philadelphia.

I’m going to spare the free throw comparisons. Lou Williams shoots them well and LeBron James does not.

That mentality is needed in Laker Land. Jerry West knew that.

Lou Williams would have been respected in the locker room

The common narrative that floats around the NBA is that LeBron James likes to play around veterans. They work well and the cohesion comes together quickly. What gets lost in that message is that veterans that have been around James take away the leadership responsibilities of LeBron.

LeBron James was atrocious in leading the Lakers this year. He did not develop the relationship with the young players of the Lakers (Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma and Lonzo Ball) early in the season and it showed.

When Tyson Chandler came in after the Phoenix Suns buyout, he became the liaison for the locker room for a while. The only problem is at his age. His body did not hold up to produce on the floor and back and neck injuries eventually kept him out of the lineup.

Then LeBron’s name was attached with getting the entire team traded to New Orleans. Locker room unison? Dead along with his creditably as a leader.

As for Rajon Rondo, with respect to Bill Plaschke, who says that Rajon Rondo is the undisputed leader in the locker room with the young players helping them out, I have one thing to say about that; he hasn’t been the best one. Rondo has done his fair share of damage too.

Rajon Rondo plays absolutely no defense and has basically destroyed the Lakers defense under the radar. His deficiencies as a shooter are getting close to being as bad as his defense. Just because someone barks out orders doesn’t make them leaders. They practice what they preach.

The Los Angeles Clippers have a very young team with no All-Stars. But the one thing you can count on from them is playing hard every night starting at the defensive end. Lou Williams is not a defensive stalwart but he doesn’t ball watch either.

Lou Williams, along with Patrick Beverley and Montrezl Harrell, has put together a cohesive unit that has bought into Doc Rivers culture of competing every night. This happened even after trading away their best player in Tobias Harris and Boban Marjanovic, the Clippers back up center and most popular player in the locker room.

All for the price of $8 million. One million less than what the Lakers are paying Rajon Rondo.

Lou Williams is a professional scorer and the best shooter in L.A.

Yes, that statement means for both teams. Before anyone starts with the LeBron James stat barrage of 28 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, can you count on him to get those stats late in the game when it matters?

According to the NBA.com/stats report for March 19, 2019, Lou Williams is averaging 20 points a game but in crunch time is where he make his money. He has scored 100 points in 102 clutch minutes. That means under the five-minute mark folks.

I mean Lance Stephenson had a close up look at what the man can do earlier this season in the Staples Center with about two minutes left in the game.

All season long, you’ve heard complaints about the Lakers lack of shooting. Well, they had Lou Williams on the roster and he was playing just as well then as he is now.

He would have worked seamlessly with this roster all while giving Luke Walton the support he deserves to be successful on the Lakers sideline. Plus he would have brought the production to command respect from LeBron James.

Well Lakers fans, there you have it. Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka have a lot of work to do in this offseason. Most believe that changes should be made if the moves are not successful. For the fan’s sake, I really hope they do.

The only problem is, it took a little while for the Buss/Kupchak mistakes to hurt the Lakers.

It only took Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka about three hours!