Los Angeles Lakers: Why it is time to shut down key players
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Lakers are not playing up to expectations and it is time to shut every significant member of the roster down for the 2019 season.
Expectations were high for the Los Angeles Lakers heading into the 2019 NBA season. The front office secured LeBron James on the first day of free agency and the team was going to build on a young core that was showing promising signs the year prior.
The front office even brought in veteran options to fill out the bench, which is typical of a LeBron James team.
The team even started off on the right foot as well and peaked on Christmas Day when they handily defeated the Golden State Warriors.
LeBron then got hurt, the young core struggled, Lonzo Ball got hurt and slowly but surely the Lakers slipped out of the playoff picture.
A 113-105 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday moved the Lakers to 30-34 and five and a half games out of the eighth seed.
It is now time for the team to shut down the significant players for the rest of the year (LeBron James, Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma and Lonzo Ball). Here is why.
1. The Los Angeles Lakers won’t make the playoffs regardless
This one is kind of a no-brainer. The Los Angeles Lakers only have 18 games remaining and need to make up five and a half games to the San Antonio Spurs.
While the Spurs no longer have Pau Gasol, it is still going to be very hard to catch the eighth seed, especially with the Sacramento Kings in the ninth seed as well.
The Lakers would have to finish, say, 13-5 if the Spurs finished 6-11 in order to leapfrog them in the standings. That is a moderate estimate and even that does not seem doable for the Lakers.