Is the championship window closed for the Los Angeles Lakers?

The Los Angeles Lakers lost in embarrassing fashion to the Phoenix Suns in Game 6 of the first round.

This was an overall disappointing season for the Lakers that ended on an extremely sour note.

The final game really told the story of the season. The team was left playing shorthanded after Anthony Davis reaggravated a groin injury that has been nagging at him throughout the final stretch of the season.

Without AD on the court, the Lakers once again let Devin Booker go on a scoring explosion, looking nothing like the defensive juggernauts they have branded themselves as.

The Lakers were far from the team that won the NBA Finals last season. They were outplayed and outworked by a Suns team the Lakers were favored against.

With LeBron James playing the fewest games of his career this season paired with him being 36 heading into next season, he may no longer be able to be the leader of the team.

Along with this, it appears that despite James attempting to hand the keys to the franchise to Davis, he is still nowhere near being capable of leading a team to playoff success.

With these two factors, unless a big move is made this offseason, it is safe to say the following:

The championship window for the Los Angeles Lakers may be over after only one championship.

When the Los Angeles Lakers made the trade for Anthony Davis, expectations were set sky-high for the duo of James and Davis.

It was expected that James would show Davis how to lead a team to the promised land and the right way of being the face of a franchise like the Los Angeles Lakers.

James took him under his wing as soon as he was added to the roster. Heading into the 2019-2020 season, James attempted to give Davis the number 23 in a way of passing on the torch. Along with this, he said to the media that he wanted Davis to be the leader of the offense and he believed he could be an MVP and Defensive Player of the Year caliber player.

The Lakers went on to knock out the Miami Heat in six games to win the NBA Finals. Along with this, Davis finished the season as a DPOY candidate and led the Lakers in points per game. He was playing like the player James planned for him to be and it appeared that everything was going according to plan.

However, after a short offseason, it appears that Davis is still not quite there yet to be the Batman of a winning franchise.

Davis has played unlike himself this season. Some of this can be explained away by injuries, however, it is very concerning to the future of Anthony Davis.

He has become much too content playing in the midrange and at times seems to be intimidated by bringing the ball to the paint.

This is a trend that began showing itself far before Davis suffered his first injury of the season.

Whether this is by design or player decision, this has been a flaw of LeBron James as well.

It seems as if the Lakers are clicking best when their stars are dominating the paint. However, both Davis and James are taking jump shots rather than bringing the ball to the rim far too often.

While Davis is an excellent midrange shooter and James is having one of the best shooting seasons of his career, if they continue this playstyle, the Lakers will never reclaim their title of NBA champions.

Along with this, we may be seeing James begin to regress with age and he may never be able to be the force in the paint to the level he was in the championship run.