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After landing the best basketball player on the planet in LA this past offseason, Magic and co. had made a solid resume of their own. But the fairytale did not unfold as the majority would have expected.
The Lakers are currently 10th in the West - have been so for a while now - and are more than two games behind the eighth seed. With the possibilities of a playoff berth looking grim, LeBron's legacy has been put to test yet again. The team clearly needed reinforcements going into the midseason trade window, and to be brutally honest, they came out on the other side worse off than they entered, to say the least.
The Lakers front-office went all out where they shouldn't have and made some juvenile transactions that might hurt their chances sorely down the stretch. Heading into the All-Star weekend, they are clearly outside of the playoff picture looking in.
Let's run a wholesome review of a catastrophic line of decisions made that is the Lakers 2018-19 mid-season trade window.
#1 Players they received and assets they had to let go of
When the world was waiting to hear on AD-to-Lakers news, the Lakers front-office kept shuffling minor pieces in order to keep the trade talks going. According to ESPN,
Amid all the Anthony Davis talk, the Lakers dealt guard Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk and a second-round draft pick to the Detroit Pistons for guard Reggie Bullock.
In this exchange, the Lakers got a 38% shooter from beyond the arc in return for their 47th pick in Svi Mykhailiuk and a future pick combined.
“Svi is an amazing player and was hard to give up as a rookie, (but) we kind of wanted a guy that can do it now in Reggie Bullock.", Pelinka said.
What really came as a shock to many Laker fans was the following Woj bomb.
The Lakers front-office let go of a 21-year-old center who was putting together the best stretch of his NBA career and had the following explanation as an answer:
“It was hard to trade Zu. (He is a) great young player but we feel Muscala can spread the floor, stretch five and play some forward as well. Against, just open up the court for our drivers like Rondo, LeBron, Brandon Ingram and Lonzo when he comes back,” Pelinka said.
Mike Muscala - who was traded to the Clippers from Philly in the Tobias Harris deal - is averaging seven points and four rebounds this season.
#2 The Anthony Davis deadlock which resulted in utter despair
The quest to bag Anthony Davis started with the following offer:
Apparently, the Pelicans administration found it underwhelming and asked for more, to which the needy party decided to go all out.
It became pretty clear after a while that referring to the Pelicans' GM Dell Demps' demands in return for AD as outrageous would be an absolute understatement. Eventually, the deal did not go through and the Lakers front-office led by Magic Johnson had to bear the public shame of putting nearly all of his players on the trade block for nothing. Once the smoke settled, all it did was leave a bad taste in the mouths of LA's young core.
According to Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix,
"Handled quietly, and the Pelicans might have been more open to dealing with the Lakers, sources familiar with the situation told The Crossover,"
"But Davis’s attempt to bully his way to LA, coupled with internal questions about whether the Lakers, who are headlined by LeBron James, who is represented by Rich Paul, who also represents Davis, had a hand in all this only served to cement the Pelicans resistance to dealing with Los Angeles—for now, anyway."
#3 Players they should have aimed for as potential deadline steals
Driven by the following belief - highly dependant on LeBron's playoff superpowers - Rob Pelinka and the Lakers front office gunned for shooters to stretch the floor, rather than placing their chips in line to land the Grizzlies veterans that had been released after at least 10 seasons from Memphis.
"We just felt like if we tweaked our roster a little bit from a chemistry standpoint and added some shooting, we can just make that push for that eighth spot or seventh spot, get into the playoffs and then let a player like LeBron do what he does in the playoffs."
What they needed was some legit veteran talent, and the pairing of Conley-Gasol is one that has been tested and proven to perfection time and again.
Another possible deal that did not go through involved Carmelo Anthony. The Lakers are yet to take advantage of the buyout market as the trade deadline now stands expired.
