With the trade deadline 17 days away, LeBron James may be sending a message to the front office that something needs to be done. The Lakers star talked about the limits of the team’s current roster after a 116-102 loss to the cross-town Clippers Sunday night, according to Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times.
James said the team has a razor-thin margin for error because of the way the roster has been put together. Asked if there is a way to improve that internally, James responded, “Nah. That’s how our team is constructed. We don’t have room for error — for much error.”
Presented with a follow-up question about whether the Lakers have to be nearly perfect to have a chance to win, James said, “We don’t have a choice. I mean… that’s the way our team is constructed. And we have to, we have to play close-to-perfect basketball.”
Woike points out that even though the Lakers are sixth in the West at 22-18, their underlying numbers haven’t been good. Despite the winning record, their point differential is minus-2.6, which ranks 12th in the conference.
They’re also failing to capitalize on a favorable part of the schedule, as Sunday was their 10th time playing in Los Angeles over a 12-game stretch. The Lakers are just 5-5 so far and are in danger of slipping out of a guaranteed playoff spot and maybe even the play-in tournament.
Adding to James’ point about roster construction, he probably didn’t expect to be playing such a major role at age 40. He’s logging 34.9 minutes per night, which is roughly in line with his playing time since he came to L.A. seven years ago, and is averaging 23.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 8.8 assists. He has only missed four games this season, and the Lakers usually need a huge effort from him to be competitive.
It’s also worth noting that part of the roster construction issue stems from taking James’ son, Bronny James, with a second-round pick and giving him a standard contract rather than a two-way deal. The 20-year-old guard has spent much of his rookie season in the G League and has averaged just 2.4 minutes in nine NBA games.
The Lakers have already made one significant deal, acquiring Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton from Brooklyn last month in a four-player trade. That hasn’t been enough to spark the team in a tight Western Conference playoff race.
Making pointed remarks close to the trade deadline has been a pattern throughout James’ career, but he’s not the only one who believes the Lakers are in a difficult position. A longtime scout tells Woike that the Lakers appear “stuck,” and coach J.J. Redick expressed similar concerns Sunday night.
“We don’t have a huge margin for error. Nor can we create that margin organically,” Redick said. “It has to be emphasized daily to touch the paint, to play paint-to-great mentality, make the extra pass. We don’t have a guy on our team that’s going to necessarily always draw two to the ball. We don’t have a guy on our team that’s going to be able to get past his guy one-on-one and get to the paint and spread it out to the perimeter. Like, that’s just not our team. So we have to do it through connectivity, through execution. And when we do that, we’re really good.”
Oh please on the Bronny part, every team has a Udonis Haslem at the end of the roster. The Lakers have no roster spots because their GM gave away Player Options like candy to middling vets the previous summer.
Nowhere in this article did you reference the corpse of Christian Wood, Jayson Hayes, Cam Reddish, or that ridiculous Vanderbilt extension.
Shut up, LeBron.
They gave away player options because that’s how you get the top minimum salary guys to go to your team. Suns did the same thing.
“the top minimum salary guys”
Christian Wood
Jaxson Hayes
Cam Reddish
LOL
Fun fact, Wood signed on September 6th, he literally had no market.
These two are not planning to chase the championships
Lakers GM
Paul George
I mean, there really isn’t a trade out there that is going to get them a championship. They should just stick with the smaller moves like getting DFS. That’s about all they can do. No point in sacrificing the future for Zach LaVine.
Lakers won’t win anything until they move on from LeBron. I guess they can be happy with their fake chip he won them.
LeBron’s championship window is closed shut! The drafted well and gave it all way to get him to win the fake chip.
The dagger was that Russ trade. KCP, Kuzma, and a first – not to mention Russ salary precluded them from re-signing Caruso. Otherwise they might have actually had a chance to win another championship. Then they filled out the roster with a bunch of washed players that were friends with LeBron. That is exactly why you DON’T listen to LeBron James or other superstars. They trade Reaves and the farm for LaVine, they will be terrible for years.
The Lakers were not precluded from re-signing Caruso.
They decided to give Talen Horton-Tucker a bag instead.
Russ is looking rejuvenated in Denver though! Russ always gives 110%, if that clashed with LeBron’s style of play, all of that shouldn’t fall on Russ!
There is a big gap between the top 6 teams in the NBA and the lakers. Only way most teams can make it to the championship is hoping the other teams get big injuries’ during the playoffs. Its looking more like Cavs vs OKC in the finals.
all I hear is “whine whine whine – this roster – that I half hand picked – isn’t performing up to what I hoped it would be be when I made them get these people – but it’s not my fault”
No room for error? If you’re the “Goat” (Which you are absolutely NOT) you should be more than good enough to bridge that gap.