Los Angeles Lakers: Magic Johnson is facing immense pressure

With the Los Angeles Lakers’ season coming to a merciful close, it’s safe to say that Magic Johnson is facing something that he hasn’t faced in a long time: Pressure.

If you are a constant resident on Los Angeles Lakers Twitter as much as I am, then you would know that it has been a little quiet on that end of the internet.

Lakers fans haven’t had much to cheer for as the team has fallen out of the playoff picture for the 6th consecutive year. As expected, Laker Nation has turned its attention to the ensuing offseason to come.

Despite what people believe about LeBron James‘ involvement or lack thereof, in putting this roster together, at the end of the day it was Magic Johnson who assembled this band of characters. It is him, as well as Rob Pelinka, who should share in the fact of knowing that it was a catastrophic failure.

But, unlike other franchises around the league, Magic Johnson is going to have every possible opportunity to set things right this offseason.

Magic could not have a better toolbox to work with. He will have multiple roster spots available, an exciting young core, more than enough cap space, and one of the best players to ever play the game.

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Name another franchise that has all of that to work with.

But, with all that being said, I am still skeptical as to whether or not Magic can get this team turned around.

I’ve been on the record saying that I am very interested to hear what Magic and Rob have to say at this year’s exit interviews because I feel that they have a lot to answer for pertaining to this season.

But this offseason, I am looking solely at Magic Johnson, as I think that he is facing immense pressure to turn this team around.

I’m hoping that he realizes that his plan to go the non-traditional route of surrounding LeBron with playmakers instead of shooters backfired on him exponentially. That we can all agree is one thing he needs to rectify immediately.

For the Lakers, there is not a singular thing that will instantly turn things around. It is becoming increasingly clear that free agents aren’t clamoring to play for the Lakers, but on the other hand, there aren’t a lot of great trade candidates that the Lakers can acquire either.

The list of things that Magic Johnson absolutely has to accomplish this offseason includes finding a competent head coach to replace Luke Walton, finding a second supertstar, whether he is an MVP caliber player or just an All-Star caliber player, as well as signing shooters to support LeBron.

That might not seem like a tall task, but the Lakers front office is already being labeled as one of the most hated front offices in the league, and that means that Magic isn’t going to be getting any favors from anyone as he tries to resurrect the Lakers from the lottery.

It seems as though Magic and Rob will be completely alone in their offseason quest. Given the fact that they are both novices when it comes to being in a front office, that doesn’t bode too well for them.

Magic has to realize that the lure of Hollywood is no longer enough to entice players to join and that now he actually has to put in the work in order for his vision to come to fruition.

With his fellow peers in the front office world seemingly salivating at the hopeful destruction of the Lakers, Magic is going to have to break through and come up clutch in arguably the most pressure situation he has been in since his playing days.