Last summer, the Los Angeles Lakers traded guard Talen Horton-Tucker and forward Stanley Johnson to the Utah Jazz for Patrick Beverley, a veteran guard they hoped would give them a boost in a couple of areas.
Beverley has always been known as an intense defender, and, historically, he has been an accurate 3-point shooter and a vocal leader. Although he started poorly this season, he came on strongly, shooting 39.6% from downtown in December, January and February.
Nonetheless, L.A. traded him on Thursday to the Orlando Magic for center Mo Bamba.
On his podcast, Beverley gave his opinion on the cause of the issues that have caused the Lakers to struggle this season.
Via Lakers Daily:
“It wasn’t basketball,” Beverley said. “It wasn’t basketball. It wasn’t basketball. It was other (expletive). But other (expletive) that you really can’t like pin or point out. You know, comes and goes. You know, a little bit here, a little bit there.”
There was a time in late November and the first half of December when they were starting to win the majority of their games and looked like a legitimate playoff team. Since then, the Lakers have failed to gain ground in the Western Conference playoff race.
It’s very possible one culprit was the tension between Russell Westbrook, who was also jettisoned via trade last week, and the rest of the team.
Now that he is gone and the roster looks significantly different, the Lakers will have the opportunity to reset their collective mood and attitude while making a charge toward claiming a playoff spot this spring.
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