Los Angeles Lakers: 10 most disappointing seasons in franchise history
1. The 2012-2013 Los Angeles Lakers getting swept in the first round
After losing to the upstart Oklahoma City Thunder in the playoffs the year before, the Lakers went all in and traded for two stars in Dwight Howard and Steve Nash. Similar to 2003, they landed two stars hungry for their first title, yet this time only Nash was well over the hill and Howard was at the tail end of his prime.
Every Lakers fan remembers the now-infamous Sports Illustrated cover after they signed, that pictured Nash and Howard next to each other and said “Now this is going to be fun.” The season turned out to be anything but fun with Nash and Howard being hampered by injuries for most of the year, particularly Nash who missed 32 games that season with a fractured leg that he sustained in the second game of the season.
When the Lakers first made the moves to trade for Dwight and Nash, many fans thought they were great acquisitions and they were immediately back in championship contention. However, those moves actually went on to cripple the team for years to come and they barely had any wins to show for it.
Not only did they not win a title with the four-headed monster of Kobe, Pau, Howard, and Nash, they barely even made the playoffs in the one season they played together. One of the biggest reasons for their woes on the court was that Kobe and Dwight never meshed and their defense was ranked 20th in the league out of 30.
After limping into the playoffs as the number seven seed in the Western Conference, this team was swept by the eventual Western Conference champions the San Antonio Spurs. It was the first time in Kobe’s career that the Lakers were swept out of the first round.
What made this tremendous flop of a season even more disappointing was what transpired after the season ended. Howard left to play with James Harden and the Houston Rockets one season after the Lakers gave up multiple assets to bring him in and basically begged him to come back with a corny billboard in Los Angeles.
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The Lakers ended up going 27-55 the next season and missed the next six postseasons as a result of trading three first and three second-round picks for a failed attempt at a super team.