During the 2021 and 2022 offseasons, there was a great deal of roster turnover for the Los Angeles Lakers, leading to fans complaining that executive Rob Pelinka and owner Jeanie Buss had essentially dismantled the team that won the 2020 NBA championship.
Los Angeles failed to reach the play-in tournament during the 2021-22 season after trading Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Montrezl Harrell for Russell Westbrook, not re-signing Alex Caruso and adding several free agents who were over the hill. About a year ago, it looked like it was headed toward the same fate.
But then came multiple midseason trades that transformed the roster and the organization. All of a sudden, the Lakers were considered championship contenders, and despite having little time to jell with their new supporting cast, they reached the Western Conference finals.
Although they got swept there by the eventual world champion Denver Nuggets, they decided to maintain the core that got them there, despite some fans wanting them to again go after a third star. Buss told Dan Woike and Brad Turner of the Los Angeles Times in a recent interview that such a decision was an easy one (h/t Lakers Nation).
“It absolutely did,” said Buss regarding whether that run influenced such a decision. “When you think about where we started the season, 2-10, 2-11, and at that point, you kind of feel like are we ever gonna be able to dig our way out of it? So the idea that we got to the trade deadline, the All-Star Game, and the momentum started to go in a direction that hey, now we see a team that’s kind of coming together. Then they started making a run for the play-in and we’re gonna make the play-in and then we win that game and then we start winning rounds in the playoffs. You just get swept away. And it is a familiar feeling that we haven’t had in a long time, but as Laker fans know, that’s what we’re used to as Laker fans is going late into the season, into May and hopefully into June. I didn’t want it to end. Certainly we came up on a Denver team that was headed their way to a championship and so it was tough to lose to them but it was kind of nice to knock off the sitting champions when we beat the Golden State Warriors. So when we headed into the offseason, conversation around the office was let’s just stay on this roll, let’s bring this team back and build on it and see what we can do.”
Although this season’s Lakers are just 7-6 right now, their potential is clear, and they’re still building chemistry after having only three months together last spring. After being saddled with an old and undersized roster a year or two ago, they now have a young and athletic roster that has plenty of depth and length, especially in the backcourt and at the wing position.