A busy summer lays ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers, regardless of whether they decide to give the 2021-22 project another chance or pick a different path toward the championship.
The 2021-22 campaign has been a massive disappointment for the franchise. As the season went on and injuries kept piling up, L.A. was falling further behind the NBA’s top teams, both performance-wise and in the standings, and never seemed capable of reversing the trend.
Russell Westbrook got to play just 21 games with Anthony Davis and LeBron James by his side, failing to develop the necessary chemistry to determine the Big 3’s real potential. Westbrook has said he’d like to give the superstar trio another go next year — even though previous reports claimed the differences between him and L.A. made a potential 2022-23 return “impossible.”
But Carmelo Anthony thinks it’s too early to discuss what the Lakers and their players should do in the offseason.
“You start thinking like that, then you already defeated when you still have games going on and you still have preparation you have to take care of,” Anthony said.
“It’s hard to think like that. It’s easy to think like that, but it’s also hard to think like that when you still have games going on. … So to be thinking about next year and next season or whatever other than getting it done now, I think that would be selfish for anybody to do that.”
The Lakers will finish the season will less than 35 wins for the first time since James’ arrival — a mark all of the 37-year-old All-Star’s previous teams have hit in the past.
Davis understands some players might not return to Lakers in 2022-23
Davis maintains L.A. — and “the world” — would like to see what a healthy 2021-22 Lakers team could achieve. However, the 29-year-old forward understands the group might not be able to run it back due to the roster’s structure.
“A lot of our guys, I think maybe besides four or five, are on one-year deals,” Davis said. “So that’s a personal choice for those guys.”
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