The Los Angeles Lakers’ 2021-22 campaign recently came to a bitter end despite having lofty expectations and a talented roster.
In fact, the team widely missed the playoffs and landed in the No. 11 spot in the Western Conference with an abysmal 33-49 record. The laughing-stock season allowed plenty of people around the league to berate the Lakers.
Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob recently spoke to Tim Kawakami of The Atheltic about the Warriors’ future and seemingly took a shoot at the Lakers’ awful roster construction and management.
“There are a couple teams, I’m not going to say who, there’s some other teams that went all-in on older players,” Lacob said. “And older players do get injured. That’s the thing you have to remember. Suppose we had made a trade, traded away all our youth, for I don’t know, you name the guy, and they’re injured, out for the year. Anytime you’re over 30, 32, 35, these people get injured. It’s data.”
The Lakers’ roster this regular season was headlined by a few future Hall of Famers, such as LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook and Dwight Howard.
Although many of the players are past their prime, they still were expected to produce at a high level. Instead, they couldn’t find chemistry and rhythm playing together.
James, 37, had the best season of all the aging veterans. He posted 30.3 points, 8.2 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 1.3 steals per game this past regular season.
Westbrook, on other hand, saw his numbers dip from the astronomical averages he was accustomed to putting up. The former MVP averaged 18.5 points, 7.4 boards and 7.1 assists per contest this season.
In addition, Westbrook reportedly was in a dark space during parts of the season. He made it clear during a media session at the end of year that he didn’t get the full support he needed from James and Davis.
As for the Warriors, they’re thriving in the postseason. The team is up 2-0 against the Denver Nuggets in its first-round series. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr also threw a recent jab at James for not making the playoffs this year.
