The 2021-22 Los Angeles Lakers will likely go down as one of the most disappointing teams in franchise history. Right up there with the Dwight Howard-Steve Nash 2013 Lakers, this Lakers team has been proving all of the doubters correct and all of the believers incorrect.
At the time of writing this article, the Lakers have a 27-33 record, are ninth in the Western Conference and just lost in embarrassing fashion to the New Orleans Pelicans. LeBron James is doing all he can do. Anthony Davis cannot stay healthy. Russell Westbrook isn’t a winning player. The supporting cast, outside of a few gems, is a complete mess.
Any hopes of winning a championship have likely been dashed and at this point, it would be more shocking if the Lakers made it into the playoffs than it would be if they lost in the Play-In Tournament. As the ninth seed, they would have to win do-or-die games in a row, on the road. Can this team do that? Probably not.
This is absolutely the most disappointing team in LeBron James’s career. There is no refuting. However, despite having another All-NBA-caliber teammate and a former MVP, this also might be the worst team of LeBron’s career. It is closer than you think.
The 2021-22 Lakers compared to the worst teams that LeBron James has been on.
There are two other teams that are in the conversation for the worst team that LeBron James has been a part of: the 2018-19 Lakers in his first season in LA and the 2003-04 Cavaliers in his first season in the NBA at 19 years old.
Here are some numbers about the 2021-22 Lakers to keep in mind:
- 27-33 record (.450 winning percentage)
- -1.9 net rating (20th in the NBA)
- -2.37 Simple Rating System (23rd in the NBA)
The 2018-19 Lakers finished the season with a 37-45 record, giving them a winning percentage of .451. As it stands right now, this year’s Lakers, after trading Anthony Davis for all of the young players on that other Lakers team, has a near-identical win percentage.
However, it is worse than that. Let’s not forget that LeBron suffered a groin injury and missed a big chunk of the season. Sure, he had some injuries this season but not to the extent of that 2018-19 season, where he only played 55 games.
If you recall, the rails completely fell off after LeBron (and others) got hurt. The Lakers shocked the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day, winning by 26 points to move to 20-14 on the season. The Lakers were third in the Western Conference after winning that game and were on pace for 48 wins.
The last time the Lakers were in third place or better this season was on November 2, eight games into the season. Just with those records in mind, and the eye test alone, it is easy to say that this year’s team is worse than that year’s team. The other numbers back it up as well, though.
The 2018-19 Lakers, despite being hindered significantly by injuries, still had a better net rating at -1.7 and a better SRS of -1.33. The 2018-19 Lakers were a better basketball team than the 2021-22 Lakers.
Then we look at the 2003-04 Cavaliers. Those Cavaliers are slightly worse, checking in with a 35-47 record (.427 winning percentage), -2.9 net rating and -3.07 SRS. Those metrics are all worse than this year’s team. But with the direction LA is going (6-14 in their last 20), the team could easily finish with a worse record and similar advanced metrics.
The case for this year’s team to be worse than the 2003-04 Cavaliers is LeBron James himself. LeBron was 19 that season and while he played great for a rookie, he obviously was not even close to this older version of himself.
Modern-day LeBron averages 29 points, 7.9 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game. 19-year-old LeBron averaged 20.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game. Today’s LeBron has a Box Plus-Minus of 7.8 and is averaging .188 win shares per 48 minutes. LeBron 19 years ago had a BPM of 1.7 and averaged .078 win shares per 48 minutes. This year’s LeBron is twice as good as rookie LeBron.
So this year’s Lakers is likely going to finish very similarly to the 2003-04 Cavs despite having a LeBron that is twice as good. We can then infer that the overall team around LeBron this year is probably worse and the numbers back it up.
The combined BPM of the top 13 players (in terms of minutes and not including LeBron) this season is exactly -20. Meanwhile, the 2003-04 Cavs check out at -19.8.
The 2021-22 Lakers are worse and that is with Anthony Davis. This is the worst team that LeBron James has ever been on.