Lakers newsletter: Have the Lakers wasted LeBron James’ final years?

Welcome to this week’s Lakers newsletter, I’m Dan Woike, beat writer for the L.A. Times and this is my weekly chance to speak directly to the readers in the same way the J. Crew Factory Store speaks to me every five hours or so.

I’ve been on a little bit of a summer hiatus, enjoying some time with my family, while the Lakers basically have stayed in neutral.

There was some international competition that I monitored from afar, but otherwise, mostly same as it ever was.

But with the NBA schedule set for release on Thursday, I figure it’s time to shake off the summer rust and ease myself back into the things.

So with that…

Have they wasted LeBron’s final years?

As LeBron James earned an unlikely MVP — the plan wasn’t necessarily for him to be Team USA’s best player at the Olympics when Grant Hill first began recruiting him for the roster — each bit of praise also felt like an indictment of the Lakers.

Some of it was a bit disingenuous. Sure, when surrounded with the some of the best talent ever assembled, James’ all-around game really popped in a way no 39-year-old should be able to put together. Assists come easier, of course, when Stephen Curry and Devin Booker are the targets behind the three-point line.

But the way James performed in France reinforced the things people saw from him a year ago in the NBA Cup and down the stretch of the Lakers’ season. He’s still really, really, really good.

But the Lakers and Rob Pelinka’s summer of roster inaction, a stagnation that’s been broken by only a new coaching staff and two draft picks, makes the opening question a real topic of conversation.

A rival Western conference general manager once told me that having James on your roster means you are “all in” all the time. And the Lakers have been all in at various times during James’ time with the team.

They were all in when they shipped out everything minus Kyle Kuzma for Anthony Davis (who also played great in France). They were aggressive after the 2020 NBA title by trading for Dennis Schroder and remaking the bench. When injuries undid that season, they were aggressive again, trading for former MVP Russell Westbrook.

But when those trades are reexamined, “aggressive” looks a lot like “reckless.”

Did Pelinka need to reimagine the 2020 title roster, adding offense-minded players such as Montrezl Harrell and Schroder while rebuilding the frontcourt around Davis? At the time, the argument was that with the shortest offseason in NBA history on the way, getting more offense around James would ease the burden placed on him and Davis and give the team more runway.

It didn’t work for a bunch of reasons, bad luck and injuries included.

The Westbrook trade remains indefensible, the Lakers taking back the big contract and giving up key players and a pick for a hole they had to use future draft capital to escape.

There’s no real point in getting too deep into the weeds on either of those decisions other than to understand that their failures left the Lakers and Pelinka maybe a little scarred and cautious when it comes to moves.

It makes a lot of sense. In any world, it’s important to “win” the trade, but especially if you’re Pelinka and your résumé could start getting a more thorough examination if the Lakers can’t carve a path back to the top of the West (or at least close to it).

So overpaying, especially at this stage of the summer, doesn’t seem like a real option.

There’s also the flip side of the James-Davis coin. Eventually, James will slow down (maybe before the 2036 Olympics on Saturn) and Davis, despite being only 31, has played nearly 28,000 NBA minutes while dealing with a long list of injuries.

But all of us who watched the Olympics saw it — James and Davis competing at title level around the greatest players in the world. And fans probably are right to crack jokes about them leaving that roster for the one that picked off just one game from Denver earlier this year.

So Pelinka is forced to reckon with all of this, pressure from team stakeholders to improve, fans desperate for change and a Boston Celtics title still in the rearview all contributing variables to a very tough situation.

Pelinka probably would say that the team has only one really big shot available at the time being. And two future firsts, Dalton Knecht and pick swaps probably will get them into only so many conversations, and not the ones that are obvious needle-moving deals.

Also everyone in the NBA knows what situation the Lakers are in and because of that, teams have no real incentive to help or even deal with them fairly. If you’re talking trades with the Lakers, you almost certainly have all of the leverage.

They’re not rich enough in young talent to go deal for Alex Caruso in the same way Oklahoma City is. They weren’t cap-flexible enough to sign a top two-way wing like the one they dealt for Westbrook, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, in the way Orlando did. They didn’t have the draft capital to pry Mikal Bridges from Brooklyn.

Some of this is the reality of James and Davis and their salaries. But a lot of this is limitations the Lakers were forced to deal with after bad deals in the two years following the title.

Even last summer’s work, when the Lakers brought back most of the Western Conference finals team, is now open to criticism from rivals who point to Jared Vanderbilt’s extension, Rui Hachimura’s beefy contract and the slew of player options that all got picked up as misses that have made it harder to improve around James.

Add in a second CBA apron that makes moves even tougher, and boom, you’ve got all the ingredients for “I have no idea what these guys should do” pie.

The Lakers haven’t wasted James’ final years in the NBA for any lack of effort. They’re just jammed up because of what hasn’t worked. And while it’s bad process to be afraid of trying similar strategies, it’s also bad process to ignore lessons from the past.

It’s a problem that looks unsolvable for now. Maybe things loosen up closer to training camp with prices going down. Maybe the changes on the Lakers bench make a real difference. And maybe internal improvement from players like Hachimura and Austin Reaves pushes the Lakers ahead.

But in a conference where teams surrounding the Lakers are loaded, it’s going to be tough.

And if the Olympics showed us anything, it’s that it would be an absolute waste not to get to see James play basketball for the highest stakes.

Clip of the Week

For the first time in history, this isn’t a song. It’s the movie clip I ALWAYS think about when I try to explain where the Lakers are right now. Watch it here.

In case you missed it

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