It’s no secret that the Los Angeles Lakers have one of the worst constructed rosters in the NBA right now surrounding superstar LeBron James.
Current Memphis Grizzlies small forward Danny Green seemed to concur when speaking with Howard Beck on “The Crossover.”
“We know what happened,” said Green. “I think it’s interesting, I mean all the teams that I’ve played for, you try to see what kind of moves they make, what direction they’re going in, and especially if you win a championship there, it’s home, you have some type of invested feeling toward that city, toward that group, toward some of the players that are still there, the organization. I mean we know what happened. Things have changed. They have Dennis [Schroder] back now for cheaper. I thought he was a good fit for them. I thought there was a lot of good pieces that were good fits for them that they let go or traded away and they thought they had a better fit. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what you need around LeBron and AD (Anthony Davis).”
The Lakers currently have a 0-5 record and are now considered long shots to even make the playoffs.
Their road to the basement of the association began with their blockbuster acquisition of Russell Westbrook in 2021. They let go of key pieces like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma and Montrezl Harrell, while failing to re-sign fan favorite Alex Caruso last season.
Now, they’re paying for it as they missed the playoffs last season entirely with a miserable 33-49 record and are on track for a worse record this season.
LeBron’s past success with snipers
Green is undoubtedly referring to the Lakers’ failure to add shooting around James and Davis. The Lakers are currently ranked dead last in the league from beyond the arc, shooting at a 23.7 percent clip.
James in particular has been known to thrive with 3-and-D players surrounding him.
During his Miami Heat days, he had snipers such as Mike Miller, Ray Allen and Shane Battier on the wings. And during his second tenure with the Cleveland Cavaliers, he had players such as Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, Kyle Korver, J.R. Smith, Joe Harris and even Channing Frye to help him from the perimeter.
Now, he’s surrounded by players such as Westbrook (12.5 percent from 3), Lonnie Walker IV (14.8 percent from 3) and Kendrick Nunn (23.8 percent from 3).
James is about to turn 38, and it’s starting to feel more and more like a reality that the Lakers will be wasting his sunset years of his career. The forward is averaging an impressive 25.8 points, 9.4 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game this season and will look to help the Lakers right the ship on Sunday against the high-octane Denver Nuggets.
