The Problem With The Lakers

The Lakers are the most important team in basketball. With or without Lebron, the Lakers are always going to be nationally televised. The old heads have been fans since Showtime, and the younger fans are fans because of Kobe so the fanbase of LA is huge. It only makes sense for the NBA to always make sure that the Lakers are on television because it gets them the most money. The Lakers have not been good over the past few years. They've been clearly rebuilding with a young strong core of players with huge potential. Fans have just been watching them develop right in front of their eyes. The difference in this season is, Lebron is in town. When Lebron comes to any team, the narrative is NBA Finals. He's made it the past 8 years straight but this year he's in the East and he's aging. Fans came into the season with expectations of the Western Conference Finals, but at this point they may not even make the playoffs and people are pointing fingers why.

I believe the problem with the Lakers is Luke Walton. His coaching is the most confusing thing in the world. I have no clue how he's managing minutes, and I don't even know if he's running plays. I've literally watched the Lakers play the Rockets who didn't have a center, and refused to play a center. They had Zubac in the game, who's 7'1, who was being guarded by James Harden and they never gave him the ball. Other times, players could be playing well all night and then when the game is on the line they are benched. Lance Stephenson was playing good all in the first half of the season and just for some reason he doesn't really get minutes anymore. Javale was leading the league in blocks the first few months of the season but his minutes were reduced once they got Tyson Chandler. It honestly just doesn't make sense. Lonzo has been out the past few weeks and yet Rondo isn't even starting. Luke Walton has also been playing Lebron about 40 minutes a night just for them to lose games. His minute managing is horrible when it comes to players and at this point I'm almost sure he has no idea what he's doing. 

Luke will be out the door at the end of this season and I'm glad. He hasn't really done a good job developing any of the players on the team at all. The team has no identity and they're really just going out there and playing games. Some fans are saying that once these young players develop then Lebron can lead them to a Championship but just how long will that really take? Lebron is 34 now and he has 3 more years on his contract with the Lakers. The competition is only getting better and Lebron's skills are consistently slowing down. It's either now or never for Lebron and the Lakers and if they don't acquire a big player in the offseason then the next few years will be useless in LA.