The Los Angeles Lakers were viewed as one of the favorites to win a championship in 2022 before the season started. Unfortunately, it quickly became apparent that people overestimated the team’s potential.
When it was all said and done – L.A. didn’t even qualify for the playoffs.
Recently, NBA legend Scottie Pippen offered his thoughts on where precisely the Lakers went wrong. It’s hard to argue with his overall assessment.
“I just felt like, this season, the sacrifice wasn’t there,” Pippen told KTLA. “The players are obviously very talented. They brought in some players who are very knowledgeable about the game and can still play at a very high level, but I just felt like there wasn’t a lot of sacrifice from the individuals. That really caused that team to have a lot of chaos throughout the season.”
Obviously Frank Vogel was the main person to pay the price for the Lakers’ failures last year, but he wasn’t the sole issue with the team. And pretending like he was could impede their ability to improve.
There are three players out there that could improve the Lakers immediately. Coming away with at least one of them this summer is key.
There are also currently four teams out there willing to acquire Russell Westbrook. Clearly L.A. has a preference, but at this point giving him away to anyone would be addition by subtraction.
And finally – the front office seems to be choosing between two fairly solid options to replace Vogel as head coach. There is no wrong choice here. They should just pick one and move on.
If the Lakers can get back on track next season, everyone will forget about the disaster that was 2021-22. But if they don’t – this current group may go down as one of the most disappointing units in franchise history.
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