The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a lot of injuries this season, but if they were healthy, Rajon Rondo believes they could have challenged the Golden State Warriors.
After a big offseason for the Los Angeles Lakers, the 2018-19 season has to be considered a failure with them missing the playoffs once again this season. For a good part of the early season, it looked like the Lakers were well on their way toward snapping their playoff drought.
LeBron James was playing at his normal MVP level, and the young core was producing well enough to get wins
. At Christmas, the Lakers were in fourth in the Western Conference, and they beat the Golden State Warriors easily on that day.
However, the Lakers suffered two injuries that essentially cost them the season, as both Rajon Rondo and LeBron James went down. Despite having a good young core, the Lakers were not able to compete with other teams in the West and quickly fell in the standings.
Once James and Rondo were coming back, the Lakers then saw Lonzo Ball go down with an injury. Even though this season has not looked good for the Lakers, this was a team that was performing well prior to getting destroyed by injuries. Recently, Rajon Rondo talked about himself believing that they could have challenged the Warriors if not for all of the injuries. Here’s what he had to say to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com.
"“We still didn’t have a full deck this year so you can’t really throw out that philosophy and say it didn’t work. Championships are won defensively. It’s a miss-make league. You can’t control, obviously, the shots you make. It helps if you got a lot of shooters, three-point makers. But you’re not going to outscore Golden State Warriors in a seven-game series. The only way you’re going to be able to do it is get defensive stops, and I think we had that type of roster when we were healthy as far as guys that take pride defensively.”"
While it is hard to speculate what the Lakers would have done if not for all of the injuries, it is fair to say that they would have at least been a playoff team. The injury to LeBron really ended their season, as he missed the most games he ever has in his career, and clearly wasn’t 100 percent when he returned.
Even though the Lakers didn’t get their crack at the Warriors this season in the playoffs, they should be in a good position to make the postseason next year. Having a healthy LeBron will instantly make the Lakers a good team next season, as they performed well with him prior to the injury.
Also, the cap space that they have this offseason might result in them landing a second star to pair with LeBron and the young core. If they are able to have a strong offseason and the Warriors lose a key piece during the summer, the Lakers could certainly challenge them next season.