Channel: MJ2KALLDAY

Category: Sports

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Description: The Lakers have struggled this year with LeBron, with Westbrook, with everyone. What went wrong? #Westbrook #LeBron #NBA Twitter- @MJ2KALLDAY Gaming/Streaming- @MJPLAYSALLDAY Forget the leave Russ open spacing, the wild turnovers, the 6-16 record in the last 22 games. The Lakers are 24th in offense in the league. Now the Lakers aren’t even trying at some points. LeBron ain’t even on the screen for multiple and I mean multiple possessions. The Lakers have never been more than 3 games above 500 this season so it’s not like things were ever really going right for them so figuring out where it went wrong first is easy, before the season. It’s not signing Russ although that didn’t help. Where it started to go wrong was this one move. The Lakers let go of Alex Caruso because they didn’t want to pay more in the luxury tax. Yeah you heard that right, Alex Caruso, the guy who in 2020 was part of the best two man lineup in the NBA with LeBron, who was getting paid less than 3 mil a years on the Lakers and wanted to return, was offered 7 mil a year despite being worth 10. It showed the Laker’s priorities, their bet in their stars and screw everything else. Perhaps the Lakers thought they had an abundance of talent to just coast through the season. That they could beat opponents out with just LeBron, AD, and Russ. In the 376 minutes that LeBron, Russ, and AD have played together, their net rating is -2.5. You know another 3 man group that has only played around 350 minutes? Derozan, Caruso, and Lonzo and they are a +17.2 and similarly it’s not like this trio has played together before this season. If we look at the best 3 man lineups in the league playing above 400 minutes together, we get Jayson Tatum, Brown, and Williams with a net rating of 18.2. And here’s Frank Vogel adjusting the lineup over and over again. Malik Monk not even starting for half the season, not willing to bench Russ and stagger minutes better. The Lakers do not have a single 5 man lineup that has played over 100 minutes together this season. Whereas most teams have one primary one with 300-400 minutes and several around 90 minutes, even teams like the Nets with Durant and Kyrie missing significant games and with trades. Meaning it’s not just injuries, it’s Vogel toying with the lineup so much that he’s showing no faith in players who have a single bad performance. Russ was brought to be a floor raiser, but even he hasn’t performed to basic standards. I made a lot of videos early on the season on the Lakers, on Russ, on adjustments, on what Russ can do, but that all falls apart the moment you can’t finish layups consistently. And I’m talking about open layups. But even through this all, LeBron and AD still had faith in Westbrook, simply believing that they hadn’t played enough together. **But something snapped that game against the Knicks.** The Lakers are 25-28 in the season and LeBron comes back to the lineup. The Knicks were up by 20+ points in the first half against the big three. A Knicks team that is struggling themselves. The Lakers come back thanks to Malik Monk, Russ gets booed taking a corner three, and down the stretch, has 2 defensive possessions in which one he gets easily blown by and second, he’s not even on the screen. Westbrook is a minus 148 this season, the team gets outscored when he’s on the floor, but you don’t need stats to tell you that. We’ve been seeing it all season long. Westbrook gets benched and the Lakers offense is immediately spaced out, running smoothly. Space to drive, passes to open 3s. And at this moment is where it really went wrong for a second time. The realization to LeBron and AD that they can’t win with Russ. The Lakers looked to trade Westbrook before the trade deadline on February 10. There probably was some sort of OK given by LeBron, but I can’t say for certain. We’ve seen it on the court, LeBron being frustrated with Russ, when he looks in disbelief, puts his head down. This exchange on Feb 9th which Russ said he wishes he could be helping the team and LeBron looking uninterested. It all snowballs into LeBron not caring enough anymore, the leader defeated, which reinforces to the team that they are defeated. LeBron has the worst defensive rating out of all Lakers at 112.1. There are so many possessions in which LeBron is not even on screen. No one is expecting LeBron to be a lockdown defender. The whole team’s defense falls apart without Anthony Davis. Caruso could help a whole lot right now. LeBron at center has become the lineup for the Lakers and well, it’s struggling defensively. **The Lakers are giving up which is the worst of worst for me.**