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The Los Angeles Lakers are in real danger of missing the playoffs, despite recent efforts to shake out a six-year drought from the postseason. Even with LeBron James; the four-year, $154 million investment the franchise made to bring the fans to the promised land, the Lakers still find themselves three games back of the eighth and final spot in the Western Conference.
The purple-and-gold still has 22 games to right their wrongs, but The King is already being blamed for this potential catastrophe, making it the first time in 14 years in which he's missed out on the postseason.
As much as it's hard to fathom, the possibilities of falling short of the playoffs are very real with a ruthless schedule ahead, and the blame falling on James' hands is even more so.
To understand if LeBron James deserves this blame, the outside factors must be known first, as James is only one person in a microcosm of variables that have led the Lakers to a 29-31 record and a potential disappointment of a season.
Desperate front office plan/poor roster construction
When controlling-owner Jeanie Buss first machinated bringing in Magic Johnson as president of basketball operations and consequently former agent Rob Pelinka as the general manager, she knew this would be the guy to bring the splash to La La Land.
Johnson wasn't brought in just to give Lakers fans a familiar face to associate with the revival of the Showtime era, but to reel in LeBron James, knowing the daunting task would need a strong pitch and an even stronger credible face to deliver it.
Upon landing James on a long-term contract, the Lakers failed to capitalize on the one primordial task the front office had ahead of the season — to partner him with another star.
Truth be told, it has been the formula of James' career, as he won his first two championships with a coalition of talent by partnering up with fellow All-Stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, as they were all reaching their basketball prime. His third and last championship came with two younger guys in Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, whom the Cleveland Cavaliers traded for upon James' signing.
Paul George walked away from his hometown Lakers and so did Kawhi Leonard in this past offseason, leaving James partnerless with a bevy of young players that had developed without much at stake through their first few years in the league.
The acquisitions by this front office were sound and puzzling at the same time — bringing in Rajon Rondo, Lance Stephenson and JaVale McGee — three players that at some point in their careers were lauded for their defense, knowing James wouldn't be an active contributor in that department.
The front office, however, failed to bring shooters to surround him with, something he's grown accustomed to in each of his stops since first leaving Cleveland in 2010. The re-signing of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was a too-little-too-late moment and a complete realization of a bust of an offseason, despite the acclaim the Lakers received from the national media for signing James as the biggest free-agent catch of the summer of 2018.
An untimely injury
The Lakers were hitting stride by Christmas time. Their best feat a 127-101 destruction of the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena — a win which elevated them to 20-14 on the season and put them in fourth place in the Western Conference.
The bad news? The King injured his groin in the third quarter, causing a 17-game absence that soon saw the Lakers go 6-11 without their best player on the floor.
Some Lakers staffers were keenly aware that it could take James missing as much as 10 games to potentially knock Los Angeles out of playoff contention.
What they didn't expect is for the team to go a dismal 3-6 after his return, now mired in 11th place in the West and a full three games back from the final playoff spot.
The Anthony Davis trade parade
It didn't take long for the Lakers to pull the trigger inquiring about New Orleans Pelicans talisman Anthony Davis as soon as his agent; Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, went public with his trade request, giving Los Angeles shy of a two-week window to pressure the Pels into a trade right before the deadline.
The strategy backfired, as the trade leak ultimately was what costed them a smooth line of conversation with their potential trade partners.
Davis originally informed the front office of his unwillingness to sign a deal with the team on Friday, Jan. 25, but Paul went public with this information two days later, hoping to rush the Pelicans into a deal and create a partnership with his fellow client and longtime friend LeBron James.
In doing so, the press got wind of multiple trade offers, including a Godfather one that would send the entire young core back to the Pelicans for Davis.
Under closed doors, this front office move infuriated players like Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball, who made it known he'd rather land elsewhere than in The Big Easy if he was indeed dealt by the team.
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After the trade deadline passed, it was president Magic Johnson traveling to Philadelphia to calm the waters, as he expected a tsunami to crash down on the front office after the Lakers failed to trade for Davis, leaving the entire young core looking like expendable assets.
The gambit didn't work, as Johnson could do little to erase the mess that had taken place by floating so many names in exchange for the six-time All-Star.
Operation point the finger
A recent slew of unfathomable losses caused LeBron James to once again be the focal point of attention as the Lakers' playoff chances dwindled. A disgraceful 42-point loss to the Victor Oladipo-less Indiana Pacers, a four-point loss to the tanking Atlanta Hawks and now back-to-back losses to the Pelicans and the Memphis Grizzlies have been the spectacle of town, as the schedule only gets tougher with 22 games remaining.
It didn't take long for James to slyly question his teammates, their dedication and approach to such trying times, ranging from his “I'm comfortable being uncomfortable” rant to debating whether this playoff push was indeed what the team was focused on.
The criticism seemed to be pointed out mostly to the young players, who are inexperienced and have yet to grasp the sense of urgency to hold onto a playoff spot. Yet it isn't the young guns who have caused the Lakers' problems, but rather the veterans, as ESPN's Rachel Nichols pointed out in a recent episode of The Jump.
As the graphic shows, the players included in a potential trade like Kuzma, Ball and Ingram have actually a positive net efficiency rating this season, while the new acquisitions from this year haven't been of much help.
Another potential argument is that James should be pointing the finger at himself, after countless videos of his horrid defense surfaced after a stunning loss to the Grizzlies.
https://twitter.com/dkurtenbach/status/1100270665200951296?s=20
Truth be told, this is hardly the first time in which LeBron has been this disconnected on defense. Spoiler alert — he has been doing this for the past two-to-three seasons while many wondered how in the blue hell he managed to steal the elixir of life this late into his 30s.
James has been skating by on defense for several years now, and even doing so self-admittedly, as a way to rest and preserve his energy for late-game situations in which he'll need to go full-throttle.
All of it is understandable — but to chide teammates in and out the confines of the hardwood will bring stuff like this to the surface, and it becomes tough to make excuses for someone who likes throwing stones while living in a glass house.
While the factors that have aided to this dysfunction are much more than just LeBron James, the ultimate argument would be if he deserves the bulk of the blame or not.
One could look at poor front office decisions, the lack of tactful coaching, desperate moves at the trade deadline or even an untimely injury as parts of a microcosm that put the Lakers in this position. Yet when a star is so bluntly adamant about wanting to play with a player from a different team, when he constantly throws sly jabs at his teammates and questions their purpose — he should also be willing to take the blame.
James came to Los Angeles by his own choice, and it is by that choice that many of these events took place.
If the Lakers miss the playoffs come April, this could be a blame-broiled burger he should be willing to eat with both hands.
