The Los Angeles Lakers have been a mess this season. Anyone that followed the NBA even lightly knows this to be the case. It really has been one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history as the team was a title favorite in the Western Conference before the year and instead has turned into the worst team that LeBron James has ever been on.
The lack of success on the court has translated off the court as well. While Rich Paul did his best job to deny any tensions between LeBron and the Lakers, it appeared that there was at least some sort of rift between LeBron and the front office. He will deny it, but it is hard to deny the well-placed comments to the media during the All-Star Break, especially with reports about LeBron wanting Sam Presti to replace Rob Pelinka.
The cracks are starting to show and they continue to worsen in other parts of the franchise as well as the coaching staff also seems to be sending signals about the team.
Assistant coach Phil Handy, who is one of the most respected player development coaches in the league both by teams and superstars, got a bit too comfortable on Instagram, liking a post from ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins that absolutely blasted his team.
At least someone cares on the Los Angeles Lakers.
It has been well-documented here at Lake Show Life that the Lakers have a lack of effort and quite frankly, an ignorance about how bad they truly are this season. Multiple different comments from different players have confirmed the fact that this team thinks it has some sort of aura of invisibility around it. That once the playoffs begin things will sort themselves out.
Heck, Russell Westbrook even admitted that other teams’ strategy of just “playing harder” than the Lakers is working. An actual player ON the Lakers admitted that the team isn’t playing as hard as it could be.
As great of an assistant as Phil Handy is, there is an outside chance that this is his last season with the Lakers. Frank Vogel is most likely going to get the boot after this season and while Handy could be elevated, it also would not be surprising to see the front office clean out the coaching staff and put a new one in place.
If Handy is elevated at least he won’t be scared to call out the team’s disrespect for the game… so we hope.