Lakers: LeBron James Believes LA's Season of Failure Came Down to One Thing
Now that the Lakers futile season has come to a close, much of the attention over the last few days has been centered around Russell Westbrook and Frank Vogel. The former will likely be on the Lakers next season. The latter has already been dismissed.
Both played pivotal roles for the Lakers this season; whether fans liked it or not. LeBron James, another crucial piece of the Lakers, spoke about why LA missed failed to even make the playoffs in his exit interview yesterday.
For LeBron, the Lakers catastrophic season comes down to one simple fact.
"At the end of the day the reason why we were not very good together is because we weren't on the damn floor together. That is the number one thing. We played 21 games. That's a fourth of the season, less than a fourth of the season. I played more games with my high school teammates in a season, and we only played 27 games. So there it is."
The Lakers were 11-10 when Russ, AD, and LeBron all played. That's not a the winning percentage (.523) of a Western Conference juggernaut, but it sure beats the .402 mark that LA finished the season with.
We'll get back to LeBron in a second, but first, a quick detour down fantasy street. If AD and LeBron could've stayed relatively healthy this year, and yes, that's clearly a massive if, and the team completed the season with a .523 winning percentage, they would've ended up with the eight-seed. Not great, but still a whole lot better than finishing 16 games under .500 and missing the playoff entirely.
The avalanche of injuries to the Lakers stars resulted in the team averaging almost a new starting five every other game. LeBron didn't shy away from the statistic.
“That’s literally half the season. Forty-one starting lineups. Wow. It’s just, you never get an opportunity to see what the ballclub could have been."
Fans will never know what LeBron and the Lakers could've been, but we know what they are.
A team that'll be watching the playoffs. Right along with their fans.
