Los Angeles Lakers: LeBron’s effort shouldn’t be surprising

The Los Angeles Lakers continue to fall down the Western Conference and have many fans upset at the effort that LeBron James is putting in.

The Los Angeles Lakers have fallen short of expectations thus far this season and the hole seems to be getting bigger and bigger after each passing game. The pinnacle of the Lakers season was a blowout win over the Golden State Warriors on Christmas. Since then, it has been all downhill.

LeBron James missed over a month with a groin injury that caused the Lakers to fall from fourth in the Western Conference to outside the playoff picture.

Even upon James’ return, the Los Angeles Lakers have not been great. Starting point guard Lonzo Ball has been out of action as well and it has led to the same results as when LeBron was out of action.

We have tried our best to be on the optimistic side of things and have been hesitant to press the panic button. Even after losing to the Memphis Grizzlies of all teams, we are still not panicking. There is a lot of basketball left to play.

At the same time, though, we cannot say that we are not surprised with the effort that LeBron James has been putting in recently. This does not make it justified, but it certainly was something that anyone could have seen coming.

James has been under fire recently for his comments about his Laker teammates despite the fact that he only moved to LA for outside of basketball opportunities. That I cannot really agree on. James is still undoubtedly making the Lakers better than they would have been otherwise and he still cares about winning.

However, what is harder to argue is LeBron’s lack of effort. He is visibly out of most defensive sets. He is leaving a ton of separation from his man and practically remaining static on the defensive end.

That is what has upset fans the most and that is understandable. This is the best player in basketball after all and it seems like he doesn’t care. You could make the case that he is sending a message to the young guys but it is more than that.

LeBron James knows this team is not good enough to compete for an NBA Title. He knew that in the beginning of the year and he knows that now. Why else would the Lakers be so insistent on making a move for Anthony Davis during the season opposed to the offseason?

The Los Angeles Lakers did not get Davis and James sat out much longer than anyone thought he would to nurse a groin injury while the Lakers struggled. That does not scream that he has a lot of motivation.

With this roster and all of the rumors that have been surrounding the team for the past few years, it was easy to predict that LeBron may take a bit of an off-year in his first year in LA. He is coming off the biggest workload of his career, after all, and can still win a title with more firepower in the next few years.

We definitely do not like to see LeBron James giving minimal effort to the Los Angeles Lakers but we cannot say that it is surprising in the slightest.