Former NBA draft bust trashes Lakers for no reason whatsoever

With success comes criticism and that has long been the case for the Los Angeles Lakers. No team in the NBA has as much history and prestige as the purple and gold and a result, the team has always had a target on its back in some capacity.

NBA fans cherish when the Lakers are not at the top of the mountain, which includes the 2023-24 season. The Lakers have not looked like the title contender that fans thought they would be, which is strangely a positive development for so many.

Lakers fans are not happy and the team knows it. The seeds are there to be a contender and the front office is just going to have to make the right moves to build on what the team already has. One of those right moves might be to bring in veteran point guard Kyle Lowry, who was just traded in the Terry Rozier deal and will likely be bought out by the Charlotte Hornets.

Lowry has already been tied to the Lakers and while he is past his prime, his veteran presence would add a much-needed bench dynamic in LA (especially with Gabe Vincent being injured). In classic Lakers fashion, there are already naysayers to a deal that has not even happened yet and they are coming from the strangest sources. Former second-overall pick Evan Turner took the time to publicly warn Lowry from joining LA, as the team would somehow make him the "fall guy".

Evan Turner warns Kyle Lowry about joining the Los Angeles Lakers

Turner of all people taking the time to tell Kyle Lowry not to come to the Lakers (before he is even bought out) is so strange. Turner has absolutely no connection to Lowry as they never played together and he never even played on the Lakers, so he has no familiarity with the situation.

Plus, how in the world would Lowry even be the fall guy? Sure, fans have a tendency to be a bit harsh at times, but nobody in their right mind is going to blame a buyout signing for any potential failures in store.

Is Turner trying to sabotage this pairing so he can find his way back into the league? After all, Turner lasted just 10 years in the league despite being picked second overall. That is the only justifiable explanation, because nothing else even makes sense.

This is not the first time that Turner has made some off-the-wall comment, with the first instance this season being much more harmful. Turner told Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic in a since-deleted post that he had to "let his assistants do the rant" because of Rajakovic's "accent".

Telling Lowry to not go to the Lakers is nowhere near as harmful as what he said to Rajakovic, but it is another example of Turner making comments that he has absolutely no place making.