Ranking the Los Angeles Lakers’ biggest needs at the NBA All-Star break
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Lakers are officially halfway through the 2020-21 season as the team played its last game before the NBA All-Star Game on Wednesday against the Sacramento Kings.
The Lakers finished the first half with two consecutive losses. The depleted Lakers lost to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday and without LeBron James, they came one Kyle Kuzma buzzer-beater away from beating the Kings on a back-to-back.
We knew that it was going to be a challenging first half with the Lakers turning around from the shortest offseason in American sports history and that is exactly what it has been. While a 24-13 record is nothing to scoff at, this first half has been a roller coaster for the Lakers.
Anthony Davis has missed significant time and even when he was playing he was not fully himself in every game. In the games where Davis really showed up the Lakers looked like the same unbeatable force.
Without Anthony Davis, some of the Los Angeles Lakers holes were exposed.
Obviously, the Los Angeles Lakers are going to be a much better team once the NBA Playoffs roll around as long as Davis and LeBron are healthy. But while Davis has been out the Lakers have proved that they are not the fail-proof team that many fans thought they were to start the year.
This might not seem like a big deal with AD eventually returning, but the margin for error is so slim in the NBA Playoffs, especially with three other elite Western Conference teams in the Utah Jazz, Los Angeles Clippers and Phoenix Suns.
Small roster holes can rear their ugly head in the playoffs. A perfect example of this is the Clippers from last season. Their bench was put together of merely one-way offensive players and it torched them against the Denver Nuggets.
The Lakers’ holes are not quite that big, but there are three specific areas that could be addressed as the year goes along.
The Los Angeles Lakers do not have to completely fix all three needs and just plugging two of the holes will likely suffice. We decided to rank them, in order of need, to give Lakers fans an idea of what Rob Pelinka may be looking at as the year goes along.