Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James put up yet another offensive masterpiece on Christmas Day against the Dallas Mavericks, as he dropped 38 points on 13-of-23 shooting, six rebounds and five assists.
Albeit his supreme effort, the Lakers dropped their fourth game in a row and now stand at 13-20 on the season, good for 13th place in the Western Conference.
Afterward, James commented on the huge hole that the team seems to be digging itself that will be near impossible to get out of soon.
“I think I look at it that way,” James said. “I look at it the other way, too, like, how many times are you going to try to dig yourselves out until it’s too much dirt on you?”
This all comes in the aftermath of Anthony Davis suffering a stress injury to his right foot and being ruled out “indefinitely.” The latest update, however, is that he will be re-evaluated in another week or so.
A timeline of the Lakers front office pump faking
After the Russell Westbrook experiment failed badly last season, many expected the Lakers to make a significant trade this past offseason to help bolster the roster around James and Davis. Instead, the front office made a couple of fringe moves, with the biggest being the acquisition of Patrick Beverley for Talen Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson.
At the beginning of the season, it was then reported that the team would wait until Thanksgiving to revisit the trade market.
Now, here we are heading into 2023, and it seems that the team is likely to stand pat and waste yet another prime year from James, who at the age of 37 is putting up mind-boggling stats of 27.8 points, 8.1 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game.
The latest report more or less confirms that the front office is content with letting the 2022-23 season go to waste and looking at its options next season, when Westbrook’s gargantuan $47 million salary comes off the books and several other deals expire.
“Reinforcements via trade would obviously help, and the Lakers are still evaluating their options on a dormant trade market,” wrote Jovan Buha of the Athletic. “At the same time, it becomes increasingly challenging to justify trading a first-round pick if the group continues to struggle. The front office doesn’t want to compound its previous mistakes with more win-now moves.”
In the meantime, expect a 38-year-old LeBron James to bear the brunt of the workload with a front office content with letting the greatest player of this generation sail off into the sunset with one of the worst rosters of his career.
