We may only be three games into the NBA season, but it’s clear that the winless Lakers have major problems — and no obvious solutions.
LA dropped to 0-3 after collapsing late against the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday (all times AEDT) as Darwin Ham’s team’s struggles continued.
The offense has been the main issue, with the Lakers ranking dead last in the league in offensive rating (97.2) and three-point shooting (21.2% including 19% on wide open threes).
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It’s put the roster construction firmly under the spotlight after some of their best shooters including Malik Monk, Avery Bradley and Wayne Ellington departed last off-season and were replaced with the likes of Lonnie Walker, Patrick Beverley and Troy Brown Jr.
In fact, Indiana sharpshooter Buddy Hield, who was a Lakers target before they acquired Russell Westbrook, has the same amount of three-point makes this season (9) as LA starters excluding LeBron James, according to StatMuse.
“I’ve got to be honest with you, they’re awful,” ESPN’s Steven A Smith said First Take last week.
“The Lakers are just awful at shooting the basketball … LeBron James 27.8% from three, Anthony Davis 28%, Lonnie Walker 16%, Patrick Beverley 18%, Russell Westbrook 11%, Juan Toscano Anderson 14%. My god.
“If you want to see demoralization kick in quickly, it’s when you keep shooting bricks and you keep missing no matter what you do … Thanksgiving the Lakers’ season might be over.”
James has been forced to take on a massive load and continues to play at an elite level in his 20th season at age 37, but beyond him and Anthony Davis, not many other Lakers can hold their heads up right now.
Westbrook has perhaps unfairly coped with the brunt of the criticism, with LA’s issues spreading much further. However, the former MVP’s fit on the team continues to be clunky and he’s looked disinterested for the most part.
He’s averaged a career-low 10.3 points per game on a wasteful 28.9% shooting from the field in 28 minutes to go with 6.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists.
Westbrook’s $47 million contract (AUD $74m) does make him the most glaring problem from a roster standpoint after the Lakers failed to offload his expiring deal last off-season.
And now amid their offensive woes and 0-3 start to the season, the Athletic’s Shams Charania reports Charlotte’s Terry Rozier and San Antonio’s Josh Richardson are on their radar.
“Charlotte’s Terry Rozier emerged as a trade target for the Lakers in the off-season and their interest in him remains high, multiple sources tell The Athletic,” Charania said.
“The Lakers and Hornets held discussions about a possible three- or four-team trade during the summer, and hold him in high regard among their possible trade possibilities, but the dynamic Hornets guard’s availability will be entirely predicated on the franchise’s direction for the future and its play as the season goes on.
“The Lakers have also held preliminary discussions with the Spurs in recent weeks, sources said, showing interest in three-and-D wing Josh Richardson. The 6-foot-5 Richardson has averaged nearly 13 points to start the season, shooting 47.1 percent on 5.67 three-point attempts per game.”
Westbrook was benched for the final three possessions of LA’s loss to the Blazers, with his shot with 27 seconds left coming under intense heat given the Lakers led 102-101.
He was even guarded by 7-foot big man Jusuf Nurkic during the fourth quarter in a surprise tactic from Portland to dare the guard to shoot.
But there’s no quick or easy fix for the Lakers to get away from the Westbrook deal, with rival teams reportedly asking for both the Lakers’ 2027 and 2029 first-round picks in a trade.
“What’s on the table they don’t think will do them good enough this year and completely locks them into this low seed, play-in/six seed hell for the next two or three years,” Locked On Lakers’ Andy Kamenetzky said.
“So if that’s the case, what do you do with Westbrook? The only way this team can kind of achieve anything is if they find a way for him to be productive — and it’s really hard to figure out how to find a way for him to be constructive given the construction of the roster. “
6/7! Steph explodes from 3 in the 1st half 00:50
Perhaps the Lakers would be better off simply sitting Westbrook and copping a $47 million black hole in their rotation — much like Houston did with John Wall last campaign — to then open up cap space next off-season and allow them to keep their pick/s .
Despite their confusing roster make-up, the Lakers earlier this month announced a four-year contract extension to general manager Rob Pelinka through 2026 — an announcement made much more discretely compared to his 2020 extension.
As mentioned, Pelinka failed to find a suitable trade for Westbrook during the American summer, nor did he replace the wing depth lost during the initial Westbrook trade.
And so Pelinka, despite avoiding much blame so far, may well be the figure most under pressure at the Lakers moving forward as he looks to rejig the roster, surround James and Davis with the right talent and fix the mess that is — or risk disenchantment from the superstar duo.
“The Lakers’ own 0-3 launch has nevertheless been so noisy and dispiriting that it has managed to train intense heat and scrutiny on an executive who would figure to have a copious amount of job security after landing a new contract through the 2025-26 season,” veteran journalist Marc Stein wrote on marcstein.subtrack.com.
“What makes this team so unique is that I can’t remember another star-laden squad in my 29 previous seasons of doing this job that inspires pundits and the public to collectively predict doom in advance and then, on cue, said team struggles precisely as predicted.”
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