After winning a championship in the Orlando bubble in 2020, the Los Angeles Lakers made wholesale changes to their roster in hopes of being even better the following season.
They let go of key players like Danny Green, Dwight Howard, JaVale McGee and Rajon Rondo while bringing in Dennis Schroder, Montrezl Harrell, Marc Gasol and Wesley Matthews.
For a while, those changes appeared to be good ones as the Lakers started off 21-6 in the 2020-21 season. Unfortunately, injuries then set in after essentially having no offseason due to the pandemic. The Lakers were never able to recover that year, losing to the Phoenix Suns in the first round with both LeBron James and Anthony Davis compromised physically.
The Lakers have been trying to recapture that 2019-20 magic ever since as despite some successful seasons, they have yet to get back to the NBA Finals.
In a recent interview with Games With Names with Julian Edelman, Lakers Governor Jeanie Buss admitted she wishes the Lakers didn’t make so many changes that offseason:
“I will say, that I kind of came from the philosophy kind of inspired by Phil Jackson that when a team wins a championship, they should have the right to defend their championship. And we didn’t do that, and I regret that. One of the players on the list, Markieff Morris, just rejoined the team in the trade for Luka, he was one of the players that came back, and I told him, I said ‘I’m really sorry that we didn’t get a chance for you to defend that championship and I’m really glad you’re here.’ So we obviously didn’t win a championship the following year.”
It’s natural for Buss to feel regret seeing how things have played out since. That 2019-20 team had a special chemistry, overcoming a number of adversities to win the title in the bubble.
Considering their 2020-21 season was derailed by injuries, we’ll never know how things would have played out if they kept the 2019-20 roster together. For Buss though, she understandably wishes they would’ve at least gotten the opportunity instead of Rob Pelinka making significant changes.
Jeanie Buss believes Dr. Jerry Buss would be proud of Lakers acquiring Luka Doncic
A few years later and the Lakers appear to finally be back in the championship mix after acquiring Luka Doncic. Superstars like Doncic don’t become available very often, so Jeanie Buss feels her dad Dr. Jerry Buss would be proud of the Lakers for getting the deal done.
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