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The Los Angeles Lakers are on the brink of being eliminated from playoff contention. That's quite the fall from grace as Los Angeles is less than two years removed from winning an NBA Championship. It is also likely to become the first season in the future Hall of Fame career of LeBron James where he did not reach the postseason. That's truly amazing when you think about it. He is in year 19, and reached the playoffs all 18 previous years. Many of those were very good teams, but not all of them were. Early in his career, some of the Cleveland Cavaliers teams he took to the postseason were far from very good. But this season is very different.
Not only are the Lakers going to miss the postseason, but James needs to step up and take the blame. Too much of the team's failures are a direct result of decisions he has made, or been an influencer of.
Here are the two reasons why LeBron James needs to take most of the blame for the Lakers failure this season.
2 Reasons Why LeBron James Needs to Take the Blame for the Lakers Failures This Season
1. LeBron James put this aging team together
It has been pretty well publicized the role that James played in putting this current Lakers roster together. During the offseason last year, the Lakers added James' good friend, Carmelo Anthony. LeBron and Melo have long been good friends after being drafted #1 and #2 overall in the 2003 NBA Draft. But it was well known in NBA circles that Anthony was no longer a very good player, and likely a liability to almost any team that he plays on. Yet, the Lakers brought him on board.
The Lakers then traded for embattled superstar Russell Westbrook. In that deal, Los Angeles gave up Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Montrezl Harrell. Kuzma has continued to blossom into a highly productive NBA player. Caldwell-Pope provides elite shooting from deep, something the Lakers would kill for right now. Harrell is easily one of the more efficient, productive big men in the league that's not a superstar.
Westbrook has had a very difficult time finding his way in Los Angeles. The trade was confusing from the outset, as Westbrook has always been a ball-first point guard and LeBron typically has the ball in his hands most of the time on offense.
On Monday, Lakers legend Magic Johnson all but threw James under the bus for the trade.
.@MagicJohnson says the Lakers could’ve had DeRozan, Hield and Caruso instead of Westbrook 👀
"If you sign DeRozan, you only trade Kuzma for Buddy Hield, we would be playing in the Western Conference championship this year with those two guys." pic.twitter.com/hZ7DdPhWu1
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) April 4, 2022
According to Johnson “the blame he (James) has to take, is that DeRozan ended up in Chicago and not with the Lakers… DeMar DeRozan wanted to play for the Lakers… DeRozan could've been a Laker instead of a Bull. We could've made that deal. But when Russell and LeBron stared talking, that's when they nixed that deal and went with Russell Westbrook, and he became a Laker instead of DeRozan.”
DeRozan this season has been playing at nearly an MVP type level for the Bulls. He is averaging 28 points per game. He is also pulling down five rebounds, dropping five assists per game and hitting 50 percent of his shots from the field.
Meanwhile, Westbrook's struggles have been highly covered throughout the season.
This is the oldest roster in the league. It is filled with guys that cannot shoot from deep. For so much of James' career, he always made sure to surround himself with shooters. It didn't matter if they were old or young, so long as they can shoot from the outside. James has always been so great at driving the lane, drawing the defense and kicking it out. Mike Miller played a handful of extra years winning titles solely because of James.
Yet, LeBron opted for Westbrook and Anthony to be part of this squad.
2. LeBron James hubris
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