The Los Angeles Lakers will have plenty of decisions to make in the coming weeks. This is how one writer would handle things if they ran the team.
The Los Angeles Lakers will finish what most will call the single most disastrous season in their storied history. After Tuesday night, when the Portland Trail Blazers game is in the rearview mirror, the reality will set in.
The Los Angeles Lakers will not be in the playoffs. LeBron James, who was brought in to reverse the fortunes of the franchise after leading eight straight teams to the Finals, will not even get a chance to compete for number nine.
Now Magic Johnson is gone. About one hour before the final game, he resigned as president of basketball operations.
The dysfunction that is well documented in the Jim Buss/Mitch Kupchak era would have been surpassed if Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka hadn’t delivered on some promises about some max-level free agents that was loudly declared in the middle of Dodger Stadium during the World Series.
This was on the assumption that the Los Angeles Lakers would at least make the playoffs this season. Now that video will be infamous and forever linked to Magic Johnson’s era as the head of the Lakers front office.
It would have been hard to believe that Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving or that guy on the fullscreen with David Ortiz, Kevin Durant, was going to walk into the press conference in July.
If you think Magic Johnson was getting shredded by the media and fans alike now, just think how bad it would have gotten if the same type players were parlayed on the Staples Center floor with players like Reggie Bullock and Mike Muscala, who the Lakers settled on after that Anthony Davis situation.
Now it’s time to live in reality. No empty LeBron James quotes that come from a psychological term called “insecurity”. No more constant leaks to the media about getting top free agents with no real assets to obtain them. No more living in the past with arrogance thinking that everyone is lined up down Hollywood Boulevard begging to be a part of the Lakers dynasty. No more pushing the narrative that EVERYBODY wants to team up with LeBron James.
Those days are over and the franchise has to work. From Jeanie Buss down to the guy that turns the lights off in the Staples Center. Right now, this is embarrassing. There is one good place to start though. Jeanie Buss sees that the season was a mess.
"“We haven’t lived up to the brand that (my father) created, and he created a culture of winning and success,” Buss said. “(The Lakers) were always relevant and they were always in the conversation, and I felt like the team had lost that importance.” “We want a team the community can be proud of, and we bring in players that can fit part of something bigger than their individual selves,” Buss said. “(I want to) build something special that, just as my dad said so many years ago, that the community can be proud of.”"
Let’s hold on to that statement and analyze, shall we? The key words are “brand” and “culture”. Those are words that get used a lot in the English language without full understanding or execution. It seems that Dr. Jerry Buss’ death had a lot to do with that “brand” and “culture”.
Mitch Kupchak had his take to Bill Oram of The Athletic about those issues.
"In the four years after Dr. Jerry Buss died in 2013, the Lakers had made the playoffs just once, and the organization was splintered at the top. Dr. Buss’ wishes of having Jim run basketball and Jeanie be in charge of business were not working. The siblings did not speak. Jeanie did not trust Jim to make the right decisions. And Kupchak was caught in the middle. “I think everybody knows, when Dr. Buss passed away, everything changed,” Kupchak said. “And, quite frankly, the further away we got from his passing, the worse it got.”"
To the loyal readers of Lake Show Life, they know my writing style as “brutally honest”. I tell it like it is and in my lengthy list of post games and features of the Lakers front office, I came up with an interesting concept. I thought in theory, why don’t I have a try at running the Lakers?
What do you Lakers fans have to lose? Your team is the worst team in the NBA in the last six years which coincides with the death of Dr. Buss. Yes, my New York Knicks, who are the worst team in the NBA this year have more wins in the last six years than your Lakers.
That’s why I’m perfect for the job. I am your new President of Basketball Operations. Just like the information you get from my pieces, I’m objective. There will be past links from this season for everyone to refer to as we go along. Let’s get started.