After the horribly mismanaged process that caused former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue to end negotiations, the Los Angeles Lakers have been viewed as a dysfunctional franchise with more questions than answers.
Going back to as far as the 2012-13 NBA season with the failed Steve Nash and Dwight Howard trades, it seems the Lakers have made very few good moves and several catastrophic ones.
Despite all of that, the Lakers managed to sign LeBron James and for all intents and purposes, they remained an organization that truly cared for their players.
Now, with the front office almost at an all-time low of incompetence, it seems possible that even the players are not too pleased with the current situation, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports:
“It’s really frustrating for people who are involved with the team and certainly from some of the players I’ve talked to. They called it an embarrassment — I’m talking about players, I’m talking about players for the Lakers. They consider it an embarrassment of what’s going on and it’s not the ideal situation to be in.”
If this is true and there are current players saying that about the state of the franchise, it would be just one of a long line of rock bottoms for them in the past few seasons.
Owner Jeanie Buss and company need to figure out the validity of a report like this. Not to punish players, but to thank them for being honest about the horrid state of the Lakers and perhaps use it as motivation to finally make some significant and necessary overhauls.
If it’s untrue, those changes still must be made, but Buss will have to look somewhere else to find that motivation and hopefully before it’s much too late to build a contender for the 2019-20 season.