The Los Angeles Lakers, on Tuesday night, suffered a 138-122 defeat to the Atlanta Hawks in one of their most lackluster efforts of the season. They may have been without Anthony Davis, who missed the game due to a hip injury, but their loss to the Hawks could not have encapsulated better what has gone wrong for LeBron James and company for most of the 2023-24 season to this point.

At this point, it's becoming increasingly evident that the Lakers players have stopped buying into whatever head coach Darvin Ham is teaching his team. Moreover, compounding matters, beyond Ham's confounding rotation decisions, is the fact that the roster surrounding James and Davis simply may not be good enough to reach last year's heights, let alone compete for a championship.

In fact, LeBron James appears to be near the end of his rope; in his postgame presser following the Lakers' defense to the Hawks, it sure looked like he was back to his passive-aggressive ways, calling out his teammates to perform their roles to the best of their abilities to help the team win.

“I don’t have any message for my teammates. Just go out and do your job,” James told the media before he was cut off, per Spectrum SportsNet, via ClutchPoints Twitter.

Frustrations have been mounting for LeBron James and the Lakers ever since they embarked on a slump in the aftermath of winning the inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament. They have plummeted all the way from the upper echelon of the Western Conference to the congested play-in tournament picture, and that is certainly not where the Purple and Gold envisioned themselves in the middle of their Western Conference Finals appearance follow-up campaign.

The Taurean Prince saga continues to rage on for the Lakers, with fans questioning why the 29-year old forward continues to get minutes, while the other role players haven't been able to perform well on a consistent basis. There's a strong reason why the Lakers are the most prominent team involved in trade rumors, and for the second straight year, expect there to be wholesale changes to help fix what ails one of the league's most disappointing teams.