2. The Los Angeles Lakers need to legitimately improve this offseason
We all thought the Los Angeles Lakers improved last offseason with the moves they made and on paper they certainly did. I cannot fault Rob Pelinka for the moves he made when injuries caught up to the team and they never got a chance to fully play together.
Pelinks recognized something that I was preaching heading into last offseason: if you are not getting better in the NBA then you are getting worse. That is the case for the Lakers this offseason as well but this year is a bit more extreme.
The urgency is higher for the Lakers. Heading into last offseason they at least had pieces they could bank on if they could not improve as desired. That is not the case this offseason. There are so many impending free agents, and quite frankly, the team has to improve more this offseason than it did last offseason.
Anthony Davis is still one of the best players in the world but he does have a long injury history so there is a bit of concern there. More importantly, LeBron James is one year older and who knows how this ankle injury impacts the rest of his career.
This is by no means saying that LeBron is washed, but even if he has alluded it thus far, father time catches up to everyone and nothing is guaranteed.
Last season having a core of LeBron James and Anthony Davis with veteran role players was enough to win the title and it would have been enough to at least get to the Finals this year if they were healthy. Next year? They might need a bit more and need that true third-best player.