What Could’ve Been

LeBron James has been talked about since his high school days and, obviously, that early hype has translated rather well. Over the past few years, we’ve seen that he can take some underwhelming rosters and make a Finals run.

However, there has always been one criticism during the King’s eight straight finals appearance: It’s the Eastern Conference.

So when LeBron elected to put on the purple and gold and lace up for the Lakers, him and his fans were ready to prove everyone wrong. They were ready to make that final push to put James above Michael Jordan and atop their NBA legend hierarchy.

And here we are now, Los Angeles sitting pretty at 11th in the West with a dazzling 29-31 record. The Lakers have lost to New Orleans and Memphis after James said he activated "playoff mode." The roster has no chemistry because James wanted to ship them all away. He doesn’t even know how to play defense. Yet all he can do is point fingers.

Let’s go back to one season ago. Lonzo Ball is an exciting rookie, Brandon Ingram’s offense is developing, and, following the all-star break, Julius Randle turns into an absolute beast. Not to mention, Kyle Kuzma was making a case for Rookie of the Year. That core by itself won 35 games. For what? Randle’s gone. Ingram doesn’t seem to fit with LeBron, Ball’s numbers have dipped, and Kuzma is doing everything he can.

Thank the NBA gods that LA signed James, the so-called "best player on the planet," just so they could win five or maybe even eight more games.

This season, Randle is averaging close to 20 points and 10 rebounds per game, and he was doing so while Anthony Davis was still healthy. Yet the Lakers used that money to bring back Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and add on Michael Beasley and Lance Stephenson.

Don’t worry, it doesn’t make sense to me either.

Ingram has been playing very well recently, as he had 29 points in the loss to New Orleans and 32 points in the LOSS to Memphis. Meanwhile, LeBron is claiming he has no help. He claims the team has no urgency. I didn’t see any urgency from James when Bruno Caboclo was wide open for a three-pointer in the final minutes of that game.

I’ll give it to him though, he appeared to have urgency when he fired off that airball…

What seems to be happening is James is trying to activate a "playoff" mode or move into that next gear, but that’s a gear he may not have anymore.

He gives no effort on defense, and according to a tweet from @PaulHeadleyNBA, James has been moving at the same speed as Dirk Nowitzki (3.26 mph) on defense.

If LeBron no longer has this gear then all his arrival in Los Angeles did was halt the growth of a young core that is now frazzled and missing arguably its best piece in Randle.

When the postseason rolls around, if the Lakers aren’t a top eight seed, Magic Johnson will have failed on his “three-year rebuild,” and James will have taken a huge hit on his legacy. But most importantly, the Lakers will have killed a potential dynasty before it even started.