Los Angeles Lakers: How missing the playoffs would affect the offseason
By Jason Reed
1. The Los Angeles Lakers become second fiddle to the Los Angeles Clippers for superstar free agents
The Los Angeles Lakers’ biggest hope since Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka took over operations was to land two superstars to eventually bring a title back to LA. In such a superstar-driven league, the Lakers were going to need a second star in order to compete.
The Lakers completed the first leg of this in July on 2018 when the team signed LeBron James. However, this kind of fell into the Lakers lap, as LeBron went to the Lakers for reasons outside of basketball.
The Lakers struck out on getting Paul George, could not trade for Kawhi Leonard and seemingly got exploited by the New Orleans Pelicans in trade talks for Anthony Davis.
Missing the playoffs is going to hurt the team’s chances in free agency this summer as well. Recruiting stars to play alongside LeBron James is already a tough task, especially when you see what the Los Angeles Clippers were able to do with far less talent.
James’ comments about his teammates certainly don’t help the issue, either. Does the young core really not care? Is LeBron James over-reacting and being a hypocrite? The Lakers look like a total mess from the outside, whereas the Clippers will have a new slate, a ton of cap space and a damn good head coach.