The Los Angeles Lakers are winless through their opening four matches to open the 2022/23 NBA season - and their problems show no sign of ending anytime soon.
For the first time since his rookie season 20 years ago, LeBron James is 0-4 to start the new year. The Lakers lost 49 games and finished 11th in the Western Conference last season, while the team failed to bring in any meaningful offseason additions - so perhaps this mess could have predicted.
In fact, many believed the team could have improved via addition-by-subtraction in trading away Russell Westbrook. The first season of the experiment placing the guard alongside James and Anthony Davis went about as bad as it possibly could have done, but the organisation failed to move him and his $47million (£40.6m) salary away.
