of los angeles lakers I haven’t really done much in the past year.
A series of frightening movements The 2021 offseason kicked off with a deal that will no doubt be remembered as one of the worst in league history. That’s the deal that sent Russell Westbrook from the Washington Wizards to Los Angeles. After that, the 2021-22 season was as bad as ever with the team completely missing the playoffs and play-in tournaments.
This 2022 offseason for the Lakers has centered around Westbrook as well. The team has some of the quickest buyer remorse they can have in a deal of this magnitude, as evidenced by countless rumors and reports that the team is about to dump him on someone else. was
After Donovan Mitchell was released from Jazz (reportedly Westbrook’s potential Lakers trade partner) For the Cavaliers, Westbrook’s squad for the 2022-23 season is currently the biggest question mark in the league. Basically every other team in the league has their season roster figured out. I mean, everyone’s analyzing how each franchise’s offseason ended. who improved? who got worse? who is tanking? Besides jazz, of course.
One of the most popular forms of this kind of analysis comes from ESPN’s Tim Bontemps each year. He investigates anonymous coaches, scouts and executives Regarding the various questions surrounding the move made in the offseason. Naturally, the Lakers always show up in some form, as they are the conversational lightning rod. But this offseason didn’t get much mention other than two questions.
The first and most notable was “Which team had the worst offseason?” The Lakers got his one of the 15 votes cast for this question, with his three teams, the Mavericks, the Hornets and the Nets, getting at least more votes than them. .
The second question with the Lakers answer was, “What was the most surprising move of the offseason?” Again, one vote called out the Lakers, this time asking Russ to stay on the team. This is what the “Scouts” told Bontemps about their supposed vote.
“I think [the Lakers are] “We’re trying to prove to ourselves and other teams that nothing needs to be done,” said the scout.
“If he’s put on a bad team, he’ll make a bad team decent. You put him in Indiana? He’s going to make a difference in winning.”
Who knows if this “scout” was the same person who voted the Lakers had the worst offseason, but if a Lakers executive saw this, they’d say, ‘We’re working on it. increase. !”
Training camp starts in less than a month, but the league’s “worst offseason” isn’t over yet. If this poll was retroactively done after Westbrook was traded, we have to assume that the Lakers and Westbrook probably weren’t mentioned at all (Rob Pelinka was voted in, giving the Lakers “best offseason”). (unless you couldn’t vote).
Either way, 15 coaches, scouts and executives are some of the smartest people in the world when it comes to NBA decision-making, but they don’t always have the most authoritative opinions about the offseason.
in the 2021 version of this pollRuss’ trade to the Lakers was voted by two individuals as the worst move of the offseason, but the Lakers also received 5 out of 10 votes to win the Western Conference Finals. NBA FinalsNeedless to say, those latter voters were lost.
Whether it’s because Russ was traded, or Russ, LeBron James and Anthony Davis have been able to find ways to stay healthy and thrive under new head coach Durbin Hamm. I hope the one who voted for them to have the worst offseason is wrong.
Otherwise, this year of ruin and darkness will continue.
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