Lakers News: Insider Paints Grim Picture for Potential Win-Now Trade for LA
The Lakers tumultuous season feels like it hit rock-bottom on Sunday with their Christmas Day loss to the Mavericks — at least we can hope it's rock bottom.
The Lakers led by 11 going into halftime. Then, the Mavericks dropped 51 points in the third-quarter — outscoring the Lakers by 30 — and cruised to a 124-115 victory.
The Lakers fell to 13-20 and the 13th seed in the West — one game behind the seemingly tanking Oklahoma City Thunder. Yes, it's that bad.
Then on Monday, the news for Laker fans got worse. Despite being linked to tons of potential trade options over the last few weeks, Jovan Buha of The Athletic said the team may not pursue any of those moves, as the team's front office doesn't want to "compound its previous mistakes with more win-now moves." Here was the whole quote:
"Reinforcements via trade would obviously help, and the Lakers are still evaluating their options on a dormant trade market. At the same time, it becomes increasingly challenging to justify trading a first-round pick if the group continues to struggle. The front office doesn’t want to compound its previous mistakes with more win-now moves."
That's not great news for Laker fans who were hoping this team would be active in trying to improve the roster. But at the same time, can you really blame them?
The Lakers are closer to the 15th seed in the West than they are to the 9th seed. Their superstar big man Anthony Davis is out indefinitely, and there's no clear option to replace him. They're 1-4 since he's gone out, and have allowed opponents to score 117, 130, 134, 134 and 124 — that's not good.
Darvin Ham has struggled to put out strong lineups without AD, and LeBron James knows the team is missing his length. So they could go shell out some first-round picks to try to build a roster capable of making the play-in tournament. But at the same time, if AD is out for a long time, what's really the point?
LeBron is about to turn 38-years-old and is doing everything he can to will this team to victory. But at some point they may have to come to the realization that, without AD, they just aren't good enough to contend.
