With 17 NBA championship banners hanging from the rafters of their home arena, we would automatically relate to one of the select few franchises that had been able to dominate the league in its 75 years of existence.
Since they last won the Larry O’Brien trophy in 2020 at the Orlando bubble, the Los Angeles Lakers had been a symphony of disharmony that even a chorus of croaking frogs would be an aural pleasure. They had become so bad that they now share the bottom of the 30-team league with the Detroit Pistons.
After the 2020 title run, management had the brilliant idea of shipping out some important rotation pieces of that roster. What was once a pleasant composition had become a puzzling decimation that baffled fans. As if tearing down that 2020 lineup was not enough, injuries added to the distress.
They started this season with five successive losses and after two straight wins, had their second 5-game losing streak. This 2-10 record tied the worst start in Laker franchise history. Their win the other day over Brooklyn at least snapped the malady and avoided them the distinction of eclipsing the franchise record in bad starts.
LeBron James, almost 38, is still the team’s top performer. Anthony Davis is 9 years younger than Bron yet, had become so brittle that some sports media outfits had baptized him as the Glass Man. Russell Westbrook completes the supposedly deadly trio but despite his numbers coming off the bench, he’s still prone to errors at crucial moments.
It was reported that Dennis Schroeder and Thomas Bryant could be debuting against Detroit on Saturday but they won’t be their saviors even if Schroeder plays as well as he did at the EuroBasket. Bryant could be seeing limited minutes as coach Darvin Ham prefers to use the lanky Sudanese center Wenyen Gabriel to relieve AD.
Two homeless players could have been usefull for LAL in a much lesser role had management re-signed them. Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony are semi down-the-drain but IMHO, these vets could provide effective rim protection and shooting that the Lakers badly need.
Howard has a career average of 15.7 points, 11.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 18 seasons. Melo is considered as one of the NBA’s best shooters, averaging 22.5 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists for his 20-year career. Both reportedly are bringing their talents to Taiwan.
Yes, it’s still a long way to go but LAL’s cruise ship is caught in a perfect storm and is sinking in a sea of misery. It’s not the best but worse could still come. On the positive side of things, coach Ham might steer the floundering ship to calmer waters and maybe, just maybe, make a port-of-call to the play-in.