Late in the summer, there was some hope the Los Angeles Lakers had put together a decent enough roster and would be on their way back to respectability after a disastrous 2021-22 season.
Instead, they’re 0-5 and looking like the worst offensive team in the NBA. In fact, some may believe they’re the worst offensive team the league has seen in years.
In July, the team looked to solve its problems by attempting to acquire Kyrie Irving from the Brooklyn Nets for Russell Westbrook and some type of draft capital. Although trade talks were held between both teams, nothing materialized.
Los Angeles is rumored to be looking to sign Irving as a free agent in the summer. Even if it did so, the Lakers would have no cap space to field a strong team around him, LeBron James and Anthony Davis. One league executive thinks the team wouldn’t be that much better off.
Via Lakers Daily:
“Despite that, one NBA executive recently declared that even if the Lakers acquire Irving next summer, it won’t change much for the embattled franchise.
“‘But they’re probably going to look for the star, make another run at Kyrie Irving even though they don’t have the max to give him,’ the executive told Heavy.com’s Sean Deveney. ‘Though, no one is scared of them if you swap out Russell Westbrook and put Kyrie on the team.'”
The Lakers certainly look like they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. James is nearing his 38th birthday, and he, Davis and Westbrook don’t have very much around them in terms of offensive support or even tradable assets.
[mm-video type=video id=01gggcmxn5bk7s5z3rms playlist_id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01f5k5xtr64thj7fw2 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gggcmxn5bk7s5z3rms/01gggcmxn5bk7s5z3rms-c7008615fd5c894f63e2076cfe2c9eec.jpg]
[listicle id=87037]