Los Angeles Lakers blame pie for abysmal 2021-22 season
By Simon Brady
The Los Angeles Lakers have finally, actually fallen out of the play-in picture into the 11th spot in the west. It came in a pretty inevitable 128-110 defeat at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks minus one LeBron James, nursing an ankle injury.
Considering they’ve fallen out of the playoff picture and hit rock bottom… Yet again, which seemed impossible after blowing a 23-point lead to the freakin Pelicans in a loss the other night, it’s only appropriate to hand out the season’s blame pie to the entire Los Angeles Lakers organization right now.
The full reasoning behind one of the greatest disappointments in league history. There’s certainly more than one party to blame, so let’s start right at the top.
Los Angeles Lakers blame pie:
Rob Pelinka/Jeanie Buss: 30%
Obviously, the most difficult component of this list is deciphering blame between the actual front office and general manager-LeBron, or “LeGM” in the social media sphere. Current Laker and NBA legend Carmelo Anthony publicly called LeBron the GM straight up for example.
Though it’s also been reported that the front office was unwilling to give a third year to sign Demar Derozan, to LeBron’s chagrin. Which is terrible optics considering the way the Russell Westbrook trade has evolved, while Derozan has had a career year and shot really well with the Chicago Bulls.
Couple that with the fact that the free agent you had that you should’ve prioritized in hindsight, Alex “Carushow” Caruso, thrived in Chicago as a solid two-way role player in his first year with Derozan. As I’ll bring up in a future slide, LeBron obviously completely signed off on the Russell Westbrook trade as an alternative and deserves blame on the GM side for that.
But Rob Pelinka and Jeanie Buss were unwilling to commit to Derozan. They missed out on Buddy Hield, someone who would’ve filled a glaring need in terms of perimeter shooting. And, though more difficult to execute, failed to acquire Kyle Lowry. A champion, leader, and far greater team fit than Westbrook.
Between that and not trading Talen Horton-Tucker away while his stock was highest, who he has leveled out, to say the least and disappointed this year while losing Caruso, it’s safe to say it’s been a massive failure of a season for Pelinka and Jeanie Buss. It’ll be intriguing to see what their futures hold as LeBron is yes, still amazing, but aging and may want out of this mess.
And although I believe head coach Frank Vogel doesn’t deserve much blame as I’ll discuss later, LeBron also wanted Tyron Lue, an elite coach, originally. That was a few years ago, but it’s another “LeGM” denial that facilitates the power Pelinka and Jeanie Buss have had.