LeBron James and the Lakers have been off the boil in the last few weeks, losing out to the Grizzlies, Suns and the Clippers to put the franchise on the back foot with respect to their playoff chances.
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LeBron James has endured quite a lot of the blame for the present Lakers situation. The former Cleveland man moved to LA this season, with a challenge of uplifting this Lakers team and creating a legacy for himself in one of the most successful NBA franchises.
However, LeBron has been blamed for not being a good enough leader. The Anthony Davis trade saga brought about the ugly side of present day NBA, with LeBron calling the shots and putting up the entire Lakers roster on sale for the services of AD.
A lot of it has to do with what LeBron’s idea of moving to LA was. He desperately wants to win here and get the Lakers back to winning ways too. It has to be symbiotic relationship, one in which both parties flourish.
While the Lakers are ready to do everything possible to let LeBron feel at home and do things that he feels will bring about glory; it seems LeBron isn’t putting that trust in the Lakers management.
The Lakers management are letting LeBron call the shots, at least that is what the reports suggest. They need to come up with a plan of their own of leading the franchise to glory, one that is obviously build around LeBron, but one that is not ‘all about LeBron’.
Bringing in two superstars post the ongoing season would be the dream, but with NBA stars having already made comments about how things around LeBron can get toxic, do we really see two stars coming to LA post the ongoing season?
Now, LeBron James has assessed the ongoing season and has confirmed that the injuries that have plagued the Lakers have had a big say in their standing this season. LeBron was himself injured during the Christmas day win against the Warriors.
And with injuries to Lonzo and Ingram presently, the Lakers can’t really catch a break and make a full fledged run for that last playoff spot in the Western conference.
“I haven’t been a part of a season with this amount of injuries to all our key guys,” LeBron James said as quoted by ClutchPoints.
“Our big, big key guys. It’s just the way the season has been. We’ve had guys step up. Josh stepped up in his [Kuzma’s] absence tonight. It was great to see Josh play well again.
“For us, we prided ourselves on our depth to start the season, on how we can be good in our first unit and second unit, and obviously our depth has dwindled over the course of the season because of injuries.” he added.
Kyle Kuzma too suffered an ankle injury last night and an MRI scan shows that he will surely be out against the Nuggets.
“It sucks not only for the ball club but for the individual himself,” James said
“I know how much work Kuz puts into taking care of his body & just trying to be available to his teammates. Seeing him roll his ankle on a non-contact was definitely tough.” he added.
The Lakers have currently slid down to 11th place in the Western Conference, having a 30-34 record. They are on a three match losing streak and have some tough fixtures towards the end of the season.
However, LeBron James has conceded that they need to take things one game at a time and get some momentum going.
Funnier things have happened in the sport, but with just a 1% chance of making it to the playoffs, you would like to think that the Lakers could indeed be better off tanking and preparing themselves for the NBA draft.
