Win a couple of games and talk about winning an NBA Championship. Lose a couple of games and talk about how he needs more help. Wash, rinse, and repeat the LeBron James and Los Angeles Lakers cycle.
For years, LeBron’s teams have gone through major overhauls, both in the offseason and mid-season. Ironically, he’s always had a big say in decision-making, yet he complains about not being good enough to compete with the top guns in the league.
Notably, this season hasn’t been the exception to that rule. Right on schedule, LeBron talked about not being healthy or good enough to compete just a couple of days after saying they could win a ring because they won the In-Season Tournament.
LeBron Says Lakers Aren’t Good Enough To Compete
“I think the league’s best team so far is Minnesota, they’re pretty much healthy. OKC, pretty much healthy besides [Josh] Giddey. And Boston, they’re fully healthy,” James said.
LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers.
LeBron then blamed health for the loss and claimed that they still have some things to figure out as a team. That’s worrisome, considering they’re over 25 games into the season, yet Darvin Ham has failed to establish any sort of identity on the team:
“I don’t think we’re healthy right now,” James said. “I don’t think we’re where we want to be to compete versus the top teams, and we need to continue to get better, continue to work on our habits. For us, we’re still trying to figure out our situation as far as how we want to continue to approach each game. We’ll be better.”
Anthony Davis Is Frustrated As Well
Notably, Anthony Davis wasn’t happy with the loss either. He blamed their transition defense for their struggles, adding that they just failed to keep up with the Celtics’ in the fast break:
Anthony Davis
“There’s too many mistakes, especially tonight, a ton of mistakes in transition” Davis said postgame. “Obviously, we was crossmatched, so it’s a little tougher. We’ve been really good with turnovers but it’s the timing that kind of hurt us. But we just gotta buckle down defensively.”
Davis also talked about Darvin Ham’s recent lineup change, which is something they still need to get used to. They’ve been together for just a handful of games, and it’ll take a while before they’re at their best:
“Obviously the lineups changed, and we’re not really a switching team but now we’re getting into it because of our lineup,” Davis continued. “We’re able to do that, so the miscommunication is kinda there. I think just buckling down defensively. Offense, I think we can be fine, but we gotta do a better job on defense.”
see also
NBA pressured the Lakers to hang In-Season Tournament Banner, but LeBron James is happy about it
Shaking up your entire starting lineup one-quarter into the season just shows how clueless Ham is. He might be way over his head right now, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see this team go through yet another roster overhaul before the trade deadline, just like what has happened with most LeBron-centric teams in the past two decades.
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