The regular season has come to a close and the play-in tournament is here and is to be followed by the NBA playoffs, one of the best postseason tournaments in all of sports. Twenty teams (will drop to 16 when the play in ends) have a chance to capture the NBA's ultimate prize, a championship. At the beginning of the season, all the oddsmakers had the Los Angeles Lakers as the favorite to at least make the NBA Finals if not win the championship. However, the regular season is over and now, Frank Vogel has been fired and the Lakers finished with a 33-49 record as the 11th seed in the West. A team with four future Hall of Famers on it was not even good enough to make the play in tournament. Much to the surprise of nobody, neither LeBron James, Anthony Davis, nor Russell Westbrook seem to be taking any sort of blame for arguably the most disappointing season in Lakers history.
Frank Vogel spent a total of three seasons with the Lakers and took the team to the playoffs twice and helped bring the Lakers a title. This year was filled with high expectations across the board and while Vogel by no means did his best coaching job this year, there is plenty of blame to go around for the failure of the Lakers. It starts with the front office thinking that putting this team of "Old geezers" (As Charles Barkley likes to say) together was a good idea. The NBA now is about having young and athletic talent and the Lakers signed players who were old and way past their primes such as Wayne Ellington, Trevor Ariza, Dwight Howard, and Carmelo Anthony. Because of this, their defense as a team suffered tremendously as they went from No. 1 in defensive rating in the 2020-21 season all the way to 21st this year.
LeBron James did have a tremendous individual season for the Lakers this year, but he definitely has to share some of the blame in terms of roster construction because whether people want to admit it or not, every move is run by LeBron James when he is on the team, which gives him the ability to sign off or veto additions.
Another player who has to receive some sort of blame for LA's struggles this year is Anthony Davis. Obviously someone cannot control whether they get injured or not, but someone can control how they train and prepare for an 82 game season in the NBA. Anthony Davis has been injury prone ever since he has been in the NBA and it is starting to look like these injuries have taken a toll on him. Ever since the bubble, he has looked like a completely different player (In a bad way) because his jump shot is now nowhere to be found. This year, he shot 18% from three and 71% from free throw line. This year, he only appeared in 40 games for the Lakers, which obviously had something to do with the Lakers having 41 different starting lineups this year. LeBron was supposed to be able to pass the torch to AD and have him become the best player on the Lakers but now, it's fair to question how many years Anthony Davis even has left in the NBA.
Last, but certainly not least, Russell Westbrook deserves some of the blame for how the Lakers' season turned out as well. They acquired Westbrook to match the star power of the Brooklyn Nets, but he was never a good fit and people saw this coming from the beginning. He has proven time and time again that he cannot be your primary decision maker because he will take terrible shots, make passes that make you scratch your head, and commit some of the most gut-wrenching turnovers in the biggest moments of a game. This year, he showed signs of his athleticism that has made him so successful being on the decline, and that his shooting is not going to get any better. Now, Vogel should have definitely come up with a way to better utilize Westbrook's strengths. He should have been on the floor with LeBron and AD way less so he would not have the pressure to defer to them which opens up a lot more opportunities for a drive and kick offense that allows Westbrook to attack the rim. However, the Lakers never fully figured out how to maximize Russell Westbrook's talent with the team.
The main reason why Westbrook deserves blame is because of how he handled himself off the court. He rarely ever took responsibility for bad nights, shamed the Lakers' fanbase, and often got into verbal altercations with the media when every question he was asked this year was strictly about basketball and more than fair. If the Lakers keep Russell Westbrook, be prepared for more of the same next year.
The Lakers as a team were a disappointment and everyone from the front office, Frank Vogel, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook all deserve blame. Not to mention, Frank Vogel found out that he would be losing his job just like the rest of us did, from Woj. For a guy who brought a title to LA in his first season and took them to the playoffs the following year, he should not be receiving this type of blame. Everyone that watched Lakers basketball this year saw that this team QUIT on its coach in the middle of the season and that lack of effort on the defensive end mainly attributed to some of the most embarrassing losses in the league this year. At this point, the Lakers are on a path to nowhere as they have no draft picks to use or young talent that they know for sure will be good. LeBron, AD, and Russ are all declining assets and teams will be hesitant to give significant value back to the Lakers in return. There are disappointing teams in sports all the time, but this year's Lakers team is one of the worst that comes to memory.
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