LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers seem to be spiraling for the nth time this season. They have lost three in a row, including a brutal 37-point defeat against the depleted Denver Nuggets.
The deficit was the largest of their season thus far and even got blasted on social media by Lakers icon Magic Johnson.
When you're the most famous franchise in the NBA led by the the face of the league in LeBron James, the criticism will come from all directions – including ex-Laker Kwame Brown.
The former first overall pick called out LeBron James for various reasons, including supposedly trying to be too much like Stephen Curry and relying too much on the deep shot.
“You're not gonna win coming off screens shooting threes all day long,” said Brown. “It ain't working yet.”
According to Kwame, the Lakers should instead pound the ball inside and utilize their big men in a paint-focused attack. Brown particularly points out Dwight Howard as the man LA needs to give more attention to for their offense in part to keep him motivated on defense as well.
“I know if I was a big man on that team I would just run up and down, foul, and get the hell up out of there. Because they know they're not wanted. They know y'all not using them the right way. If I could be a fly on that wall in that locker room I know them people sitting around like ‘this is some bullsh*t.'”
Dwight Howard, poor Dwight Howard. He come off the bench cold as I don't know what. Dude been rolling, getting layups all day and then you expect a 30-plus-year-old man to come off the bench after sitting that long ready to go and play some defense. Yeah good luck with that.”
With all due respect to Kwame Brown, the Lakers' problems seem to be far more complex than simply stepping in from the three-point arc and feeding Dwight Howard more. The roster construction seems to be in disarray and the team sorely misses Anthony Davis.
Winning, however, is what silences all the critics. If the Lakers fail to do that, then the criticism from the Magic Johnsons and the Kwame Browns of the world will continue.