Post-Mortem: 2021-22 Los Angeles Lakers

[mpoo_sin]

Before I begin this, I would like to request a favor on LeBron James' behest. He asked me to tell you, and I quote, "PLEASE!!! Keep that same narrative ENERGY". So I humbly thank you in advance for respecting the wishes of LeBron and myself when talking about the 2021-22 Los Angeles Lakers. We shall now cut them open and see what's inside...

Here is the data from last year's Post-Mortems:
Post-Mortem Results I: GM Confidence Meter
Post-Mortem Results II: Coaching Confidence Meter
Post-Mortem Results III: Performance Compared to Expectations
Post-Mortem Results IV: Rising/Treadmill/Waning

Team Name: Los Angeles Lakers
Record at Time of Death: 31-48 (.392)
GM: Rob Pelinka (2017-) (Please be proud of me for my self-restraint in not making the obvious joke here)
Coach: Frank Vogel (2019-)

Offensive Rating: 23rd
Defensive Rating: 23rd
Rebound %: 25th
Turnover %: 20th

GM: Change or keep?
Coach: Change or keep?
Relative to expectations, how did they fare this year?
Rising, falling, or treadmill?
If you were in charge, what would you do this offseason?

Notes:
Players under contract next year:
LeBron James ($44m)
Anthony Davis ($38m)
Talen Horton-Tucker ($10m)
Stanley Johnson ($2m) (Partially Guaranteed)
Austin Reaves ($2m)

Team Options:

Player Options:
Russell Westbrook ($47m)
Kendrick Nunn ($5m)

Free Agents:
Avery Bradley
Wayne Ellington
Carmelo Anthony
Dwight Howard
Trevor Ariza
Kent Bazemore
Malik Monk
D.J. Augustin
Wenyen Gabriel
Mason Jones

Dead Money:

Previous Post-Mortems:
30. Orlando Magic
29. Detroit Pistons
28. Houston Rockets
27. Indiana Pacers
26. Oklahoma City Thunder
25. Washington Wizards
24. New York Knicks
23. Portland Trailblazers
22. Sacramento Kings
21. Los Angeles Lakers

Bwahahahahahahahahaaaaaa
*gasp
Buhwahahahahahaaaaaaaaaa
*faint

[JXL]

LeGM wanted Westbrook over DeRozan.

That's how you know their season went in the toilet.

[The High Cyde]

Lmao you have time of death brilliant

[Van_Trump]

Yes, the Lakers are a dumpster fire this year.
Yes, they have mortgaged their future and have no prospects for the next few years.

However, they won the championship last year.

The Raptors gave up a lot of young talent to win a single championship.
Was the fan base upset about the dip in the team's performance last year?
Maybe a little, but we knew the downside of consolidating your talent for a championship run.

I feel the Lakers fan base are victims of their own high expectations. The Lakers have won tons of championships. Their fans expect them to win every year.

The Lakers mortgaged their future few years to win one championship.

Mission accomplished.

Accept the win.

[dshearn]

I got a chuckle early in the season at the hubris of some of the Laker Fans and their expectations, since most fans could see this train wreck in progress. I also chuckled at the months wasted on the idea that of all people Kendrick Nunn was somehow going to fix the issues on the Lakers, but the truth is...no fan base deserves what happen this season.

I am happy for laker fans that at least it is over. That is some real BS they had to live though this season.

The lakers need to do right by their fans and move the hell on.

[Noodlesoop]

Small correction - Austin Reaves is under contract for $1.56m next year …. Not that I except that to make much difference!

Thank you! Edited.

For the credibility of this thread, I don’t think you have any choice but to re-run the poll in light of this new, ground breaking information!

[JHFVF07]

Fire Pelinka.
Ask Lebron to give you a list of teams he wants to be traded and can give you a good rookie scale player, some draft capital and expiring(PHI? POR? GSW? Suns?Mem?), see, the man brought us a tittle, showing my apreciation.

Then you stay put and sign only one year guys. Return with WB and AD. Give NOP a great pick(again), and wait WB expire.
Then in 2023 you have AD and 70m capspace, you hope it will be enough to bring some big name FA. If not, trade AD for more draft picks and rebuild.

[Parataxis]

Talks of the Lakers perhaps using the stretch-provision on Russ in the hopes of freeing up some space. That would be something...

If the FO stretches Westbrook i’m done with this team

Would that even give them cap space? With the guaranteed contracts, that's already $96 million, plus another $15 for Russ being stretched to three years puts them at 110 for 5 players. Add in another 9 min salary cap holds, and that pretty much puts them over the cap, even with waiving Russ, no?

[bb22]

Yes, let Vogel go.

It’s in both Lebron’s career and Lakers’ interest to pull a trade off. I know Lebron wants to be in LA for personal reasons, but he could just move there in a couple years when he retires.

That being said, I doubt it happens given lebron’s ego would take a hit if he was officially “traded” and the the other team would be gutted of talent thus putting him in another position where he has to carry the team.

I personally think AD won’t give you much else going forward. His fragility is a serious issue, and he can’t lead a team on his own or create for others. Unfortunately he’s not going anywhere while Lebron is around, so it’s gonna be another year of Lebron + AD + minimum contracts and washed stars next year.

Do anything to get rid of Westbrook. If the Lakers had real billionaire ownership, they would just make a buyout deal. But they’re cheap and don’t have that spending power.

[R-DAWG]

Am I the only one thinks the long term outlook isn't dreadful? I mean sure, next season isn't looking too great, especially considering Lebron will be a year older, and they likely will lose Malik Monk while only adding in a player making the taxpyer MLE (I guess you can included Kendrick Nunn as 2 players making the taxpayer MLE to the roster although he just offsets the loss of Monk).

BUT - after next season, they are only down 1 future 1st rd pick (plus the swap on next years pick) and they own all their future 2nd rd picks. My assumption is they can recoup that value and more by trading Lebron and AD. All money besides AD (assuming he isn't traded) and THT ($11MM expiring) is off the books entering 2023-2024. Oh, and it's the Lakers and Los Angeles.

So yes, the window to compete for title's with Lebron may have closed. They might be forced to have a couple of down years without owning their lotto pick. But the path to starting a rebuild is there, and liquidating the value of Lebron/AD offset the draft capital they still owe.

[R-DAWG]

Talks of the Lakers perhaps using the stretch-provision on Russ in the hopes of freeing up some space. That would be something...

If the FO stretches Westbrook i’m done with this team

Would that even give them cap space? With the guaranteed contracts, that's already $96 million, plus another $15 for Russ being stretched to three years puts them at 110 for 5 players. Add in another 9 min salary cap holds, and that pretty much puts them over the cap, even with waiving Russ, no?

I think stretching Westbrook is a huge mistake. It's not like the Lakers are a full mid level and bi annual exception level player away from being a true contender that it's worth having all that dead money on the books. Better to just let WB expire after the year IMO.

The Lakers paid a price this year having Luol Deng's $5MM of dead money on the books. Deng's money + 1 vet min slot combined for $6.8MM. Maybe, just maybe, there was a middle ground between $6.8MM and the number Carusso got from the Bulls that could have worked for both ownership and the player. Then the MLE money used on Kendrick Nunn could have gone to a 3 and D wing.

The outcome would have likely been similar, maybe a play-in birth, if Lebron and Davis were not healthy and Russ worked out the way it did. But it's example of the long term cost the stretch provision has.

[Exp0sed]

Bubble or no Bubble, Injuries or not..If ur team goes from Champion to 30 wins in Two seasons - It's not the Coach's fault. It's obviously the FO, owners, gm the lot of it.
Since they're stuck with the Busses..it doesn't matter even if some1 forces down ur throat something like the Westbrook trade - U resign..so to me- they're all to blame. Pelinka has made every possible mistake since he entered into office, just get some1 who actually understands a bit of baskbetball to do things and they'd be allright.

[Exp0sed]

They're not gonna go into an open public war with Lebron...so if he wants to stay - he stays.
If they assess that he's staying and wants to stay - I would try to retool around Lebron and Dame. I think there is a beneficial for multiple parties deal to be done...to get from under westbrook's final season.
Something that's based on Westbrook to Portland to command the tank, sell some tickets --> AD to a third team that pays the most --> and from the Davis treasure trove they pay up for Dame and Nurkic, added picks\swaps as needed to be done and that's that.

Without owning their first rounders the next couple years, what little incentive they had to really rebuild went out the window.
Lebron still seemingly producing, might as well roll the dice.

[Alatan]

I'm real curious to see what LeBron does next.

Lebron jumps ship to the Clippers. "The King saves the Clippers" or some nonsense like that.

[SK21209]

1. Fire Vogel (will absolutely happen, no idea who replaces him. Snyder as rumored would be great, Doc would suck.)

2. Fire Pelinka (probably won't happen, I think the front office sees him as the last link to the Kobe era. Other GMs don't like/respect him and he's not very good at negotiating trades)

3. Trade Russ. There will be a Russ trade available in the offseason, whether its a Russ for Wall framework revisited or something slightly better since the 2029 FRP is now available to trade.

That's really all I can say at the moment, next year's roster needs to be crafted in a way that makes sense around LBJ/AD/the return you get for Russ. I personally think we should go back to starting AD at the 4 and playing big to start each half. Last offseason we tried to build a supporting cast around LeBron and AD that had a higher ceiling in case they missed time. We failed spectacularly and they missed a lot of games. This offseason, I think we need to focus on building a roster specifically tailored to playing around those two and accept that if they miss significant time again we're screwed anyway. Reaves will be back, he's a pretty solid rotation guard. Nunn will probably opt into next season and be back, hopefully he can play in a **** game next season.

[Archerbro]

Main thing is for the decision makers to really decide with Davis. do they think he can stay healthy and be that dominant form we saw with the pelicans and in the bubble? Keep him.

If not-it's probably time to move on.

either way-a decision has to be made.

[jbk1234]

Obviously, there's plenty of blame to go around, but if the Busses aren't willing to spend money, it's going to be even harder to trade Westbrook.

[FreeThrowLine]

Are they really dead though? They’ve been eliminated and we’ve got 10…yes 10 active Laker threads on page 1 of the GB

[giberish]

They finished worse that I expected, mostly due to worse injuries (I really only had them at 40-45 wins though, so way under popular opinion). Nunn missing the entire year really did hurt, when you only have 5 guys expected to be above replacement-level and one misses the entire season it's a big deal. Replacing 30 mpg for 60-70 games of replacement level play with mediocre level play probably adds another 5 wins. I was figuring ~120 games for LeBron + Davis and they were well below that as well.

I don't really blame Vogal - there was too little quality on the roster to win much. Not only were there 10 min salary guys, but 8 were way, way past their prime and either barely holding on to being credible rotation options (like 9-10th man level in previous seasons) and now another year older, or had already aged out of being credible rotation players a few years ago. Then of the 5 guys the team spent any money on: 1 missed the entire year, 1 was a kid who didn't make 3's and was not yet an effective team defender, 1 was Westbrook, and 2 were injury-prone stars. Still reasonably has to go just due to the stink of this season.

The offseason was just so bad that Pelinka has to go. Even if he wasn't really making decisions, he at least had the option of saying, "This plan is a disaster, I'm leaving rather than have it on my record."

For those saying that 'It's not so easy to get effective 3/D guys, you can't just pick them up for min salary deals." That's why the Westbrook deal was so horrible. Put that $45M to work in adding useful rotation players and the roster makes much more sense.

[And1+2]

They need to trade LeBron in the off season and start the rebuild. His value won't hold forever... Perhaps AD as well. The Lakers need to start looking into the future and without assets it will be pretty bleak...