The last week has given everyone time to get in their post-mortems on what went wrong and who did wrong in the Lakers disaster of a first season with LeBron James.
Some say the front office ignored pleas of the coaching staff to keep good players. Some say the coaching staff didn’t make the most. And most everyone agrees that the Anthony Davis fiasco, orchestrated by LeBron James and his agent Rich Paul yet bungled by Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka, also torpedoed their season.
But that doesn’t mean the latest report from ESPN’s Zach Lowe is any less important, adding evidence to the growing pile that is the Lakers failure. According to Lowe, the public trade talks sapped morale and the same goes for Magic Johnson’s meeting with the team after the deadline.
The midseason gambit to acquire Anthony Davis almost certainly doesn’t happen, or become so public, without at least LeBron’s tacit go-ahead. Those talks sapped morale, sources say. Ditto for Magic Johnson’s post-deadline lecture about treating the Lakers’ young players “like babies.” LeBron’s eye-rolling on-court scoldings, a staple whenever he feels things sinking, did nothing to reverse any of that. Unbecoming, but not new.
As I wrote at the time, Magic Johnson’s handling of the post-deadline fallout was forthright, but callous to say the least. It is true that mostly all of the players in trade talks could be replaced, but it’s never something any employee wants to hear. And as Lowe points out and is evident by now, it’s bad for morale.
There’s no way that you can tell the story of the Lakers failure this season without mentioning the injuries to LeBron James and Lonzo Ball, but there is an unquestionable decline in the team’s performance after the Anthony Davis trade talks went public.
Since Davis’ trade request was reported by ESPN on Jan. 28, the Lakers have gone 4-12 in the subsequent 16 games. Only the league-worst New York Knicks have a worse record (3-16) over that timeframe.
