The Los Angeles Lakers were unable to defend their NBA Championship and were unable to win a single playoff series in 2021. The purple and gold were bounced by the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the 2021 NBA Playoffs.
The Lakers had a mixture of misfortunate this season. The team could just never get healthy and Anthony Davis spraining his groin in Game 4 was a death sentence for the Lakers. Even before that, though, the Lakers were not playing fantastic basketball, at least not compared to last year.
In what is an extremely disappointing season there were disappointing players as well. It is safe to say that fans expected more out of these players.
The biggest disappointments for the Los Angeles Lakers this season:
5. Talen Horton-Tucker
I know, it is almost sacrilegious to say something negative about Talen Horton-Tucker because he is the most promising young player the Lakers have on the roster. THT has boatloads of potential and there is no doubt in my mind that he will one day be a great rotation player for a title-contending team.
THT is still only 20 years old and we should not expect that much out of him but after a really promising preseason, it is safe to say that expectations were higher than what he delivered in 2021.
THT was great defensively but he did not show the offensive output that Laker fans were hoping for. As it stands right now, he really just has one move to get to the rim, the right-handed finish, and he needs to expand his game by expanding his shooting range. He can’t shoot under 30% from beyond the arc as a guard.
THT gets a lot more leeway than the other players on this list and that is why he is listed fifth. But at the end of the day, you would be lying to say you did not expect more out of THT than what he gave this season.