Road to Revival: Here’s how the Lakers salvage their season
The reeling Los Angeles Lakers, currently sitting ninth seed in the Western Conference, did not make a single move before the NBA trade deadline on Feb. 10.
But after an offseason of swings and misses from General Manager Rob Pelinka, he finally got it right — doing nothing was the best option.
The Lakers were reportedly in talks to trade point guard Russell Westbrook to the Houston Rockets for point guard John Wall, who has not played a minute of NBA basketball since April 2020. The Lakers declined the offer when the Rockets asked for the Lakers’ 2027 first round pick, Pelinka’s sole prized possession.
The only other marginal asset the Lakers have is shooting guard Talen Horton-Tucker, a 21-year-old slasher who has shown glimpses of potential but has not put it all together yet. The idea of Horton-Tucker — who currently averages just over 9 points per game on 41% from the field — is a lot more exciting than the reality of what the shooting guard brings to the table.
In not trading Horton-Tucker or the 2027 first round pick for a marginal upgrade, there seems to be a clear disconnect between the Lakers front office and its superstars. LeBron is 37-years-old and center Anthony Davis seems to go down with injuries as if he is 37-years-old too. Neither care about draft picks or the franchise’s future — they want to win now.
Pelinka chose to hold his superstars accountable — James wanted Davis in 2020, and both wanted Westbrook a year later, leaving the front office with depleted resources to work with. By making no moves at the trade deadline, Pelinka seemed to tell his stars to fix the mess they made.
So where do the Lakers go from here?
There is no saving grace, no one who is going to come in and serve as a wake up call. It’s the same squad that has brought them to a 27-31 record, with the same coaching staff and front office. The whole organization has to be better.
Realistically, the Lakers will be in the play-in tournament, in a pool with teams such as the Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Clippers and Portland Trail Blazers. All of them are hoping to get a shot at the top dogs in the West against the Phoenix Suns and the Golden State Warriors.
Offensively, Head Coach Frank Vogel needs to implement a legitimate system and that begins with Davis playing his true center position. His shooting, vertical spacing and quality finishing around the rim is the only way to maximize results from this Westbrook experiment.
Vogel began the season with 33-year-old center DeAndre Jordan manning the middle, clogging the paint offensively and providing no resistance at the rim defensively. Jordan, who is a complete shell of his All-Star self, has started 19 games this season due to Vogel’s stubbornness — Jordan shouldn’t, and probably won’t, see the floor for the rest of the season.
The offense needs an actual playbook, not simply the repetitive pick-and-roll that eventually leads into one of the Big 3 hoping to score on a mismatch while the other four players on the court stand around.
Off-ball cutting, off-ball screening and more creativity from Vogel can transform this stationary team into a threatening offense — they have LeBron James and Anthony Davis, so this shouldn’t be as difficult as Vogel makes it seem.
Defensively, each player needs to buy in and compete. Vogel’s 2020 Lakers team was a defensive juggernaut, and while this squad lacks the personnel, they’ve also lacked adequate effort, resulting in the 16th best defensive rating in the league.
The Lakers are going to be in the play-in tournament regardless. But it is crucial that the squad begins to build proper habits post-All-Star break, if they want to come out of the tournament and apply some pressure to the Suns or Warriors in the first round.
There has to be a mindset change from the whole organization if they don’t want to embarrassingly crash and burn off the road to revival.
Sahil Kurup is a sophomore writing a column about the Los Angeles Lakers season. His column “Road to Revival” runs every other Friday.