The end of the Lakers season came quickly with four straight losses to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The cause of death: blunt force trauma.
Oklahoma City was too good, too deep and too talented to be tested by the Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals. Three of the four losses were blowouts, all following the same pattern: competitive in the first half, non-competitive in the second half when the Lakers ran out of bodies and energy.
Average margin of victory: 14 points.
Now that the carnage is over, Lakers Nation turns to the future and wonders: what’s next?
These questions are dominating LA sports talk radio this week.
Manny from Montebello wants to know: Will we ever win another NBA title?
Answer: not in the next few years.
Randy from Redondo wants to know: How can we possibly compete with Oklahoma City? They have three young stars in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who will soon be named the league’s Most Valuable Player for the second straight season, as well as Scottie Pippen clone Jalen Williams and do-everything seven-footer Chet Holmgren.
Answer: we can’t, at least not until the roster is significantly up-graded.
And Molly from Manhattan Beach wants to know: how can we possibly compete with San Antonio, which also has three young stars in 7-foot-5 Victor Wembanyama — already the youngest winner ever of the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year award at age 22. He is ably backed up by a trio of young, talented guards: emerging superstar Stephon Castle, quicksilver sharp-shooter De’Aaron Fox, and sensational rookie Dylan Harper, the son of former Laker star Ron Harper.
Answer: we can’t, at least not until the roster is significantly up-graded.
All the Lakers have on that same young star level is Luka Doncic, who led the league in scoring, with 33 points per game. He’s backed by 27-year-old guard Austin Reaves, who is not nearly as good as some Lakers fans like to think he is, and possibly – and possibly not – LeBron James, who may or may not come back for his 24th NBA season, and may or may not come back to the Lakers.
The X factor in all of this: the Lakers were recently bought for a mere $10 billion by a group headed by Dodgers owner Mark Walter. The Dodgers, once they cleaned up the mess left behind by former owner Frank McCourt, have been the most successful – and the most envied and the most resented — franchise in all of pro sports for the last decade.
In other words, they have assumed the mantle once held by the Magic-Kareem-Worthy Lakers in the Showtime era of the ‘80s and the Shaq-Kobe-Pau era of the 2000s.
So now that the Dodgers brain trust is in charge, the Lakers will quickly be back in championship contention, right?
Wrong.
There is one crucial difference between building a championship team in Major League Baseball and building one in the NBA: the salary cap.
The NBA has one, MLB does not.
That means what the Dodgers have done – simply out-bidding teams for the best free agents on the market every year, including Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts – cannot be done in the NBA.
No, in the NBA team-building is a much more complicated business. If you’re going to give out a $300 million contract, you have to have room in your salary structure to add $300 million, or dump a $300 million player on the open market to make room for the new one.
That kind of team building and maneuvering requires an astute basketball mind and a sharp business mind too. Governor Jeanne Buss and General Manager Rob Pelinka have displayed neither of those talents in the 13 years Jeanne has been in charge since her father died in 2013.
But it’s a new day now on the Lakers, and while the sale left Jeanne with the Governor title, you can be sure that the big decisions are being made by Walter and the basketball people he brings in.
There are seven Lakers players who are free agents this summer or who can opt out of their contracts.
As a helpful public service, All Ball will make a recommendation as to whether each of those players should return to the Lakers – and at what price.
LeBron James: this is the most pressing question of the bunch. He’s still an All-Star level player, one of the 20 best players in the league. But because of the salary cap, he’s going to have to take a significant pay cut from the $52 million he earned this year. Walter should do everything he can to convince LeBron that he is needed and wanted in LA. But LeBron is unlikely to accept a pay cut, and that means he will probably end up in Cleveland, making the Cavaliers instant contenders for the 2027 NBA title.
Austin Reaves: At age 27, the undrafted free agent who became a Laker star is a good scorer, averaging 23 points this year. But he is a major liability on defense, where he is often over-matched and overpowered. Pairing him with Doncic in the backcourt makes their perimeter defense leak more than a sieve. He is sure to turn down his player option and become a free agent. Even though he has never made an All-Star team and probably never will, some desperate team will probably offer him the five-year, $241 million contract he will then be eligible to sign. But it makes far more sense for the Lakers and AR to negotiate something in between that rewards him for all his hard work. If they tie up one of their max slots with a player who isn’t really a max player, it will hinder their financial flexibility far into the future and they will regret it every day for the next five years. Complicating factor: he and Luka have become the best of pals, and Luka could exert pressure to give him a max deal.
Rui Hachimura: He has become the Lakers best 3-point shooter among the starters, and deserves a significant raise from the $18.2 million he made this year.
Maxi Kleber: Dallas insisted he go to LA along with Doncic, and the Lakers quickly agreed just to get Luka. He made $11 million this year to sit on the bench. He is a competent third string center, and nothing more. Offer him the minimum and let him walk if he doesn’t like it.
Jaxson Hayes: A shot-blocking leaper who can’t shoot a lick. He made $3.4 million this year and deserves a small – very small – raise as a second-string center.
Luke Kennard: The best 3-point shooter in the league, but he can’t defend much. Still, he is exactly the kind of sharp-shooter that the team needs to put around the ball-dominant Luka. Re-up him at the same $11 million he made this year.
Marcus Smart: Made $5.1 million this year and deserved every penny of it. The best defender on the team – by far – and the kind of spirited warrior whose never-say-die approach rubs off on his teammates. Give him a nice raise that shows you appreciate his hard work and fiery leadership.
Deandre Ayton: The former number one overall draft pick in 2018 – drafted two spots ahead of Luka — demonstrated why two teams have already given up on him and why the Lakers should do that too. At 6-foot-11 with great athletic ability, he is a whiner, a quitter, and a me-first guy who is a cancer in the locker room and a loser with butter fingers on the court. He already has a player option for $8.1 million next season, so the Lakers have to keep him as their starting center if he doesn’t opt out. But if he opts out of that $8.1 million, the Lakers should buy him a plane ticket out of town on Spirit Airlines and wish him good riddance. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but seeing this big guy jog up and down the court while his teammates are sprinting makes All Ball nauseous.
Verdict: say goodbye and good riddance.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. ER
