Los Angeles Lakers: Grading last offseason’s additions
By Jason Reed
Coming off of an NBA Championship, the Los Angeles Lakers looked to improve for the 2020-21 season. It was the right mindset to have because if you are not improving in the NBA then you are getting worse, as every team around you is improving.
On paper, the Los Angeles Lakers definitely improved. The team went from Rajon Rondo to Dennis Schroder, Danny Green to Wesley Matthews and JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard to Montrezl Harrell and Marc Gasol.
No Laker fan was critiquing the team’s moves last offseason as everyone was gearing up for a Lakers repeat. However, the team did not quite mesh as expected and mixed with terrible injury luck, the Lakers did not get past the first round.
The previous additions by the Los Angeles Lakers can now be graded one season later.
This is why you play the games. Just because you improve on paper does not mean that the team itself is going to improve.
And who knows, if Anthony Davis and LeBron James stay perfectly healthy this season then they are probably still playing, and with the Brooklyn Nets losing in the second round, probably would have won the title. That may have changed the grades, especially if certain players stepped up in the playoffs.
However, we cannot grade these moves on what-ifs and hypotheticals. We have to grade them by what actually happened.