Los Angeles Lakers: Was the 2018-19 season a blessing in disguise?

By all accounts, the 2018-19 season was a colossal failure for the Los Angeles Lakers. But now that we’ve seen how the offseason has turned out, could it be a good thing that this past season was so abysmal?

Often times in life, things don’t turn out the way we expect. Once in a while, things will just turn out badly, as they did for the Los Angeles Lakers this past season, and people have the tendency to lament that tragic turn of events.

However, a renowned author and self-help guru Napoleon Hill once said, “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”

It was almost impossible to tell at the time, but the Lakers disastrous 2018-19 season absolutely carried with it a seed of great benefit, and we have started to see the harvest from that seed in recent weeks.

First came the surprise, abrupt resignation of Magic Johnson from his title of President of Basketball Operations. At his impromptu press conference, Johnson said that his job was simply no fun anymore and mentioned some backstabbing that was going on behind the scenes.

It’s believed that the backstabbing came from general manager Rob Pelinka, who criticized Johnson for supposedly not being present at the office or on the practice court often enough. Johnson himself admitted so on an appearance on ESPN’s First Take a few weeks later.

Once the regular season ended and the team had missed the playoffs for a despicable sixth season in a row, head coach Luke Walton, who had been rumored to be on the hot seat for most of the season, was let go.

He was instantly swooped up by the Sacramento Kings but had to endure months of rumors not just that Johnson wanted him gone, but that Rich Paul, LeBron James‘ agent, as well as Lavar Ball, father of Lonzo Ball, wanted the coach 86ed as well.

Then came a revealing article by ESPN’s Baxter Holmes that described in detail just how dysfunctional the Lakers organization was. One of the things the piece exposed was how Johnson was allegedly abusive to some team employees, despite his public image as a happy-go-lucky bastion of positive energy.

In fact, one former member of their training staff said this about the former purple and gold legend:

"“He comes off to the fan base with the big love and the smile. But he’s not — he’s a fear monger.”"

And, of course, there was the team’s failed attempt to acquire Anthony Davis at midseason, in which it was rumored that Johnson had offered almost everyone on the roster and their mother to New Orleans – everyone, of course, except for LeBron James.

It left Johnson with the perception that he had been used by then-Pelicans executive Dell Demps and James with the perception that he viewed his teammates as sacrificial lambs who needed to be thrown into the Hudson River for his own (and Rich Paul’s) benefit.

So there were the Lakers, seemingly down and out, nine years separated from their last world championship, while several other franchises in smaller markets were battling for one to call their own. To paraphrase Michael Jackson, they were stuck in the middle, and their pain was thunder.

But then, fate – or perhaps the seed from all that adversity – threw out that proverbial lifeguard buoy.

At the NBA Draft Lottery in May, the Lakers were expected to walk away with no better than maybe the 10th overall pick. But instead, lightning struck, as it had so often for them in the good old days, and they somehow won the 4th overall pick.

Now, it seemed, maybe they actually had a real chance of giving LeBron some help before he and his team could decide to leave the team in the summer of 2021 or demand a trade beforehand.

Although the upcoming NBA Draft wasn’t viewed as talent-laden past the top three players, the Pelicans apparently decided that they could extract some real value from that 4th pick. They re-engaged the Lakers in trade talks in mid-June, and – eureka – Anthony Davis was now a Laker!

Yes, the purple and gold probably overpaid a bit for him, but there’s a real chance that Lonzo Ball will always be a disappointment, rendering the Lakers’ package less gaudy than it may seem now.

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A few weeks later, Kawhi Leonard may have hoodwinked the team, and in doing so dealt them another significant piece of adversity that could’ve derailed their hopes in becoming an elite team again. When Leonard decided to sign with the Lakers on July 5, it looked like most of the high-quality role player free agents were off the board.

Instead, Pelinka quickly built a deep roster full of 3-point shooters, veterans who had won an NBA championship, good defensive players and even a wild card reclamation project (DeMarcus Cousins).

Now, the Lakers have a championship-caliber roster, and some in Vegas are even giving them the best odds of winning the world championship next June. At worst, they are being given the second-best odds to do so behind the Clippers.

Now that I think about it, if the Lakers had made the playoffs this past season, maybe they wouldn’t have acquired Davis by virtue of not having that 4th overall pick. Maybe Davis would be a Boston Celtic now. I know, that’s a scary thought.

Maybe Magic Johnson and his fear-mongering ways would still be in the front office. Maybe Luke Walton would still be head coach, a man who, according to many, just wasn’t a good enough coach to get the most out of this team.

Maybe the Lakers still wouldn’t have signed a second star via free agency or traded for one, meaning they would be stuck waiting on Ball and Brandon Ingram to become stars. I think Ingram will be a star, but not exactly the superstar that Davis already is.

If all that happened, it’s quite possible the Lakers would be stuck where many teams have gotten stuck before – in pretender status. As they say, good is the enemy of great.

And when it comes to the Lakers, being great, i.e. world champs, is the only thing that matters.

As former Lakers coach Pat Riley once wrote, there are two states of existence in the NBA – winning and misery.

It looks like they are heading back to the former after years of being saddled with the latter.