Los Angeles Lakers: Magic Johnson’s most overlooked mistake

Magic Johnson is no longer President of Basketball Operations for the Los Angeles Lakers and with his resignation brings back bad memories.

The Los Angeles Lakers were already turning into a fairly big laughing stock in the NBA because of the team’s drama and inability to even make the postseason despite having LeBron James.

The coaching was blamed, the leaked trade rumors were blamed and even LeBron was blamed. More than all of that, though, the front office was blamed, which was headlined by Magic Johnson.

Magic is no longer the President of Basketball Operations for the Los Angeles Lakers after publically resigning on Wednesday before telling his own boss.

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Since that press conference, we have examined the worst moves of his tenure and even explained why trading D’Angelo Russell, one of the fans’ least favorite moves, was not one of Magic’s mistakes while in charge.

Magic’s tenure as the president did not just include those four moves that we listed and includes a plethora of over moves, some more significant than others, that defined his tenure as an executive.

One of these moves that were otherwise looked over at the time but has since been exposed as one of his worst moves was waiving Thomas Bryant and allowing him to sign with the Washington Wizards.

If you actually look back at the LA Sports Hub archives you would discover that we called this move a poor move way back before the 2018 season even began. Some have since caught on to how poor this move was, but it really was a head scratcher as Bryant was good enough to make the rotation and would have been a better option that the team had.

Bryant was one of the top players in the NBA’s developmental G League the year prior, being voted onto the First-Team All-Rookie and First-Team All-League for the G League.

None of that seemed to matter and it didn’t even matter that he was selected with the 42nd overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. The Los Angeles Lakers let Bryant go. For nothing.

Almost a year after that dumbfounded move, Bryant has not only proven us right that it was a boneheaded move but will be yet another tarnish on Magic’s executive career, if he even cares about it.

Bryant has started 53 games for the Wizards, averaging 20.8 minutes per game. He is averaging 10.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 0.9 blocks per game. While the stat does favor big men that play fewer minutes, his 130 offensive rating is the fourth-best in the NBA this season.

Is Bryant good enough to be an all-star? No, although he could make huge leaps someday, as he did in his second year.

However, he certainly is a better player right now than Tyson Chandler is, who the Lakers had to scoop up off the buyout market, and would have been a great rotational piece.

Just imagine a three-man rotation between JaVale Mcgee, who has admittedly been really good for the Lakers, Ivica Zubac and Bryant. This would allow all three men to play fresh and provide arguably the deepest center rotation in basketball.

And even if the Lakers still would have traded Zubac it would have given the team more cushion. They would have had a much better center to fill in for those minutes and a young center that actually helps in the future.

Because right now, unless you count Moritz Wagner as a center, the Lakers have no centers signed past this season. Bryant has one more year on his contract before becoming a restricted free agent.

Yet another big man that Magic Johnson messed up with and the Los Angeles Lakers have to try and sort out the mess now that he is gone.