Yahoo Sports senior NBA writer Vincent Goodwill is joined by Howard Beck on the latest episode of “Good Word with Goodwill” on the “Ball Don’t Lie” podcast to discuss LA’s path forward with its superstar back in the lineup and if the team can challenge anyone in the Western Conference. Subscribe to Ball Don’t Lie on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
VINCENT GOODWILL: LeBron James has come back after his few weeks sabbatical, after his tendon in his foot. He talked about maybe coming back a little bit, not necessarily a little bit sooner, but coming back for the last three regular season games. Surprisingly, he came back on Sunday against the Bulls. What is your confidence level in LeBron and in the Lakers, beyond this game but for the regular season games they have left, to get out of the play-in into one of those top six playoff spots, and to actually advance beyond the first round of the playoffs?
HOWARD BECK: He looked normal-ish yesterday for a guy who’d been off for a while. He wasn’t particularly aggressive. I looked it up, like that was the fewest field goal attempts, 11, I think, 11 shots, the fewest he’d taken in I think at least like a year and a half. He only had like three assists. That’s, again, low for him.
He just wasn’t doing a lot of orchestrating and/or attacking. But he had his moments. And, you know, it’s one game back. More troubling is that Anthony Davis also was not exactly particularly aggressive or getting a lot of opportunities in that game. And they looked a little out of sorts.
VINCENT GOODWILL: And he hurt his hand. Or jammed his finger–
HOWARD BECK: Yeah.
VINCENT GOODWILL: –or whatever that was.
HOWARD BECK: Yeah, not great. You know, look, let’s start with this assumption, that LeBron is fine and he’s back, right? We don’t know what the rest is. But, OK, he’s fine. He’s back. Anthony Davis is generally fine. He’s playing.
There’s the outline there, Vinny, of something good. There is. Like there’s the outline there of something very, very dangerous, because LeBron James and Anthony Davis together with a functional supporting cast, which they now have and which they didn’t have before, is dangerous.
I’ve got to think, they’re at least in the play-in. And then they’re going to be like– you know, we’re going to do this thing again where we talk about the most dangerous play-in slash eighth seed/seventh seed, whatever, that we’ve ever seen. And they may well be.
And especially in a year where nobody particularly has any confidence at the top of the Western Conference, you know, it really leaves open a lot of stuff. You said it, Vinny. What parity has actually brought us is a whole lot of meh, or mid, or just whatever, shoulder shrugs.
VINCENT GOODWILL: Well, I mean, if you’re the Lakers, you have to be feeling really good theoretically. My problem is with all the moves that Rob Pelinka made at the trade deadline, none of these guys have played with LeBron. And unlike the Phoenix Suns, when Phoenix adds in a superstar in Kevin Durant, it’s a lot easier to mix in a Kevin Durant than it is to mix in a LeBron James.
LeBron is a high maintenance, high volume, great player, one of the greatest of all time. But that’s an acquired taste, I think, for other players to have to adjust to. Now if the West is as bad as we think, maybe you can have two top-flight players to be able to carry you through a round of the playoffs. My thing is, Howard, I don’t think you can carry them through much longer than a round of the playoffs.