Final Thoughts
Over the last month, LeBron has been constantly criticized for the Lakers downward spiral this season. Some of the condemnation he’s received has been deserved, but much of it has not been justified.
The Lakers were 20-14 before he was injured, and that record was achieved by LeBron doing all the heavy lifting.
After he came back from his groin problem, fans and members of the media have complained about James’s defense, and they’re right, he did play bad D, but he was out of shape, because he couldn’t exercise while his leg healed. Of course he played lethargically on the less glamorous side of the court, during the first 8-to-10 contests he played in after his injury. He was probably winded two minutes into each game from simply running up and down the court.
When he started playing again after missing 17 games, the team was in total disarray because of the way Magic and Pelinka publicly tried to deal half the team at the trade deadline for Anthony Davis.
People blamed LeBron for the trade deadline debacle, because his best friend, Rich Paul, is AD’s agent, and “The Brow” requested a trade and told everyone he’d prefer to be dealt to the Lakers. People act like LeBron is running Klutch Sports, because he grew up with Rich Paul, and maybe he is telling Rich what to do, but to me it’s a little far-fetched. There’s certainly no proof that he’s pulling strings behind the scenes and that he was the one behind the AD trade demand.
The fact is, Magic and Pelinka are two guys who took over the Lakers with no actual front office experience. They constructed a very bad roster around LeBron and the young core, a roster that never made any sense.
Forget about the fact that Rondo and KCP aren’t very good shooters, Magic and Pelinka should have understood that they’re too small to play in Luke Walton’s switch happy defense.
They should have re-signed Brook Lopez and then signed JaVale McGee as the backup center. Why did they think a player like McGee, who’d been coming off the bench for the past two seasons while averaging ten minutes per game, could be a starter?
The Lance Stephenson contract was just gross. Lance isn’t a good basketball player and Magic and Pelinka should never have signed him.
It’s time for fans to start blaming Magic and Pelinka for the way they irrationally built this roster, because they’re the main reason why the Lakers are lottery-bound again for the 6th season in a row.