Every week the Lakers find themselves capable of reaching a new level of cringe. This week, it was coach Darvin Ham essentially warning his players not to expect some kind of magical trade panacea, bringing up the team’s high salary numbers in a postgame press conference, even sneaking in a reference to the Lakers’ luxury tax bill. Ask yourself this: When was the last time a team’s start to the season was so bleak the coach was talking about the repeater tax 10 games into the season? Has that ever happened?
I know Los Angeles has become the NBA’s punching bag this season. It is the basketball equivalent of a tweet getting ratioed. Still, it’s truly difficult to be this bad with two top-20 players on one team. Frankly, it’s almost an accomplishment to have had LeBron James and Anthony Davis engineer their way to your organization and to then create a roster that likely won’t even make the playoffs. How have the Lakers messed up so badly? Here’s a recap of the damaging moves the front office has made to put the team in this position since signing LeBron.
