The Los Angeles Lakers have really been struggling this season and to many, it looks like it could be the beginning of the end for this current title window. LeBron James is still playing at a high level but is only going to get older and Anthony Davis cannot stay healthy and on the court.
Plus, the team still has Russell Westbrook on the roster and there is only so much they can do with his horrible fit and massive salary. Westbrook has a $47.1 million player option for the 2022-23 season so unless LeBron can make Space Jam 3 and cast Westbrook with a $50 million salary, chances are he will be back next season.
The Lakers simply are not winning a championship with Westbrook on the roster. LeBron is a free agent after next season and with how chaotic this year has been (and probably next year as well) who knows what he will do. He is most likely going to leave whatever team he is on to go play with his son wherever he ends up; that won’t be until the 2024-25 season.
So maybe LeBron has one more year in LA after his current contract expires. Regardless, the writing is on the wall for him to leave/retire in the coming years and the Lakers do not look primed to give him another title on his way out.
Regardless of when he leaves, LeBron James is still going to leave the Los Angeles Lakers as a mess.
The Los Angeles Lakers already have depleted draft capital and who knows what other future picks they trade to try and shore up the broken pieces that currently exist. With a star in AD that cannot stay on the court, there is a good chance that LeBron James leaves the Lakers in a horrible state when he does eventually leave.
Heck, even if AD is healthy it would not be all that surprising if he takes off as well, especially with the dysfunction of the front office (I would want to leave a team that has Kurt Rambis making decisions).
To hammer home just how ugly it can get, we decided to look back at the three previous rosters that LeBron James left and see just how well they did.
1. The 2010-11 Cavaliers after LeBron James left:
LeBron James first left the Cleveland Cavaliers to go join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh down in South Beach. While Cavs fans burned LeBron jerseys like it was going out of style, it did feel like he was leaving the entire time. The question should not have been if he was going, but where he was going.
To give credit to LeBron, the Cavaliers did not really go all-in on putting a good supporting cast around him in the first stint. This roster is not similar to the other two as it was just outright bad even with LeBron. That is why he left.
There were a lot of different variations, but the best starting five for the 2010-11 Cavaliers after LeBron James left for the Miami Heat was as followed:
- PG: Mo Williams
- SG: Anthony Parker
- SF: Joey Graham
- PF: J.J. Hickson
- C: Anderson Varejao
This Cavaliers team had the second-worst record in the entire NBA. It showed just how big of an impact that LeBron James had as most of these players were part of his supporting cast during the end of his first stint in the league.
It took the Cavs years to become relevant again and they really were not relevant again until LeBron re-joined them in 2014. The most games that the Cavaliers won without LeBron was 33 and that happened the year before he came back.
It was mostly due to Kyrie Irving, who was in his second all-star season in the league. We all know the story. LeBron came back home to play with Kyrie and Kevin Love, swearing to bring a championship to Cleveland. He did just that, but how did he leave the Miami Heat behind?
2. The 2014-15 Heat after LeBron James left:
The Miami Heat seemed to be in a decent situation as they still had one of the greatest shooting guards of all time in Dwyane Wade as well as another all-star player in Chris Bosh. However, as great as Wade was in his prime, his prime was short-lived and he was already out of his prime in LeBron’s second season in the league.
Bosh had regressed as well and later had to retire prematurely in 2016 due to blood clot issues. Thankfully, Bosh has been healthy since then and is now a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Wade and Bosh no longer being in their primes showed up in the standings. The 2014-15 Miami Heat finished with a 37-45 record with a starting five of:
- PG: Mario Chalmers
- SG: Dwyane Wade
- SF: Luol Deng
- PF: Chris Bosh
- C: Hassan Whiteside
The Heat missed the playoffs with that record although the team would return to the playoffs the following year after racking up 48 wins. However, the Heat missed the playoffs the next season, made it but lost in round one the following year, and missed the playoffs once again.
From the time that LeBron James left the Heat to the time that Jimmy Butler joined the Heat, the team won just one playoff series. Meanwhile, LeBron won a championship and made it to the NBA Finals in four straight years with the Cavaliers before taking his talents to the City of Angels to go make movies. This left the worst example of a deserted roster.
3. The 2018-19 Cavaliers after LeBron James left (again):
This is the worst example of LeBron James leaving a roster deserted and hopefully, the Los Angeles Lakers do not end up like this. LeBron has been great at knowing when teams are no longer geared to win an NBA Championship and this was a lot of his doing.
The Cavaliers went all-in to please LeBron in his second stint, making trade after trade to bring a variety of different veterans into the fold. If one veteran didn’t work they were shipped off for the next. Sounds like what the Lakers want to do this year and next year.
The end result was a completely depleted roster that is just now turning around in 2022 because of the Cavaliers making savvy draft choices (looking at you, Darius Garland and Evan Mobley). The main starting five the year after LeBron left was as followed:
- PG: Collin Sexton
- SG: Rodney Hood
- SF: Cedi Osman
- PF: Larry Nance Jr.
- C: Tristan Thompson
Kevin Love only played in 21 games the year after LeBron left because of injury. After representing the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals the year prior this Cavaliers team won just 19 games and had the second-worst record in the NBA.
The Cavaliers went 19-46 the following season to once again have the second-worst record in the NBA and last season the team went 22-50 for the fourth-worst record in the NBA. Finally, things have gotten better this season as the Cavaliers currently have a 35-23 record, but nobody is picking them to win the Finals let alone with a playoff series.
The funniest part about LeBron’s second stint with the Cavaliers was the fact that in his last season he (assumingly) convinced the Cavaliers to trade Isaiah Thomas and Channing Frye to the Lakers for Larry Nance Jr. and Jordan Clarkson. While this seemingly helped Cleveland at the time, it also opened up the cap space for the Lakers to afford LeBron and other role players.
Savvy, LeBron, Savvy.