Lakers let trade deadline pass with no deal. Now LeBron James & Co. are left still average.
The Los Angeles Lakers did not make a move at the NBA trade deadline.
Once more: the Los Angeles Lakers did not make a move at the trade deadline.
The team that went to the Western Conference finals as the No. 7 seed last season and entered the season with championship expectations and then won the in-season tournament NBA Cup but is one game above .500 and fighting for their postseason chances in the final 29 games kept the roster intact.
Did the ninth-place Lakers just punt on the rest of the season with teams such as Oklahoma City, Denver, Minnesota and the Los Angeles Clippers nine games ahead of them in the standings?
Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka said the right deal wasn’t there on a mild trade deadline period. “You can’t buy a house that’s not for sale,” he told reporters before the Lakers lost to Denver on the same day the the franchise unveiled the first of three Kobe Bryant statues at the arena.
He wasn’t sold on giving up the only first-round pick the Lakers have available in a trade right now for marginal help. After the season, the Lakers will have three first-round picks to trade, and that’s when Pelinka says, “will really unlock an access to potentially a greater or bigger swing.”
What did LeBron James think of all this? Pelinka said he talked to James before the deadline and explained the marketplace. “There were a lot of buyers, and as everyone knows, when the market has few sellers and tons of buyers, the prices are very, very aggressive,” he said.
The Lakers still want to see how they perform with a healthy roster, but even then, James is unsure how far the team can go in the playoffs.
“I don’t know,” he told reporters. “Haven’t gotten to that point, so it’s hard to say.”
After last year’s All-Star Game, LeBron James called the stretch run “23 of the most important games of my career for a regular season.”
After the Lakers lost Thursday with a roster that is now 27-26, James didn’t have quite the same urgency.
There is rampant speculation about James’ future with the Lakers, and even at 39 years old, he’s playing at an All-Star level. Rare as it is for someone his age, his decisions have an impact on the league.
James delved into his Cryptic Man alter ago in recent days, posting an emoji of an hourglass (the cruel hands of time are relentless) but declining to explain what he meant by it and declining to answer whether he will exercise the final season of his contract for 2024-25 or become a free agent.
It’s one of the times where reading James’ tea leaves is an entertaining and maddening yet fruitless exercise.
James has one year and $51.4 million left on his contract which takes him through the 2024-25 season. But he can opt out and explore free agency. There won’t be many teams with that kind of cap space, and with rules from the new collective bargaining agreement in place, some teams will be eliminated from acquiring him in a trade.
There is pressure on the Lakers to take advantage of what James and Anthony Davis have to offer. Since signing James in free agency in 2018, the Lakers have been to the playoffs three of five seasons – a 2020 in the COVID bubble, a first-round loss in 2021 and a Western Conference finals appearance last season.
Several teams would trade right now for that success in five seasons. And the 2020 title was important. It was the Lakers’ first since 2010 and it tied them with Boston for most all-time championships at 17.
But the Lakers aren’t most franchises. As with Boston, a title is the goal most seasons more often than not. They were a true contender twice with James, and even counting last season, they were swept in the conference finals by the champion Nuggets.
It’s hard to see the Lakers overachieving in the playoffs from a seventh or eighth seed for a second consecutive time, even if James and Davis are All-Stars. The Lakers are 14th defensively and 20th offensively, and that’s just not good enough most seasons to win a conference championship.
The Lakers tried to make a trade. They engaged multiple times with Atlanta on Dejounte Murray but a deal never materialized. “Sometimes, no move is better than an unwise move.”
There’s truth to that. Teams didn’t want what the Lakers were offering, and the Lakers didn’t want to give up what teams wanted.
What’s next? Maybe the Lakers get healthy enough to make a serious push in the playoffs. They will explore the buyout market for scoring help.
Then what? All focus is on 2024-25.
James has a June 29 deadline to decide on his option, and the NBA Draft is June 27-28. The Lakers will know headed into free agency what the situation is with James, and they will have first-round picks to trade, too. Will it be enough to improve the roster and compete in a talented and improving Western Conference? Will it be enough for James?