Lakers are 9-10. Who's to blame?

[infinite11285]

It's a collection of several factors; completely overhauled roster, lack of team synergy, and injuries. Each of those factors has a secondary impact on team defense, rotations, and coaching strategies.

It's quite apparent that when Westbrook is good, the Lakers are good. And when he's bad, they are horrendous. Even with that said, injuries have decimated the roster, including a key injury to James. IIRC, 6-8 players were consistently out for several weeks. I honestly can't think of a single NBA team that has experienced early success while being down 5+ rotational players, including several starters.

There is still plenty of time to right the ship. But players have to get back on the court and build team chemistry first.

[BruttoNostra]

I think it's on the GM of the team...
So I voted LeBron.

Now, seriously, it can't be Westbrook. Love him or not, he's exactly as advertised, so you can't blame him - blame whoever sold you the idea that Westbrook can fit this roster.

[Yoshun]

LeBron has played in 8 games and they are 5-3 in those games.

[JXL]

The fact that they went and assembled the 2010 All-Stars in 2021, yet the game is much faster than their older legs can handle is probably the best answer.

[JN61]

LeBron has played in 8 games and they are 5-3 in those games.

It's not unheard of to have LeTakes like this but they probably won one game because Lebron wasn't on the court anymore after his half arsed performance vs Pistons.

[Joshyjess]

What Court Jester James wants, Court Jester James gets!!!!

[IG2]

Lakers are 5-3 with LeBron in the lineup. 4-7 without. So I can see why he's the 2nd leading vote getter in this poll.

[makubesu]

I blame the sample size. A lot of good teams are hovering around .500 right now.

[Harry Garris]

The Westbrook trade was really bad. Lebron and AD surrounded by good role players would have been a title contending team.

[LofJ]

The Lakers and Pelicans had the worst offseasons. The majority on this board said as much and early results indicate they were right.

[kobe_vs_jordan]

Lebron making an MVP case without playing. Team is a pile of reggie miller without him.

[Liam_Gallagher]

There's many reasons.

For one, their roster doesn't gel. They have multiple players who want to be "the man" on offense: LeBron, Westbrook, Melo, THT, and Davis (in that order). The problem is the man should only be LeBron and Davis. When you take the ball out of their hands, it's not good for the Lakers. It's good for the other team.

Two, their defense is just bad. Other than AD and maybe Bradley and Howard, nobody is particularly a good individual defender. They have bad rotations because they're old, slow, and uninterested on that end. Vogel doesn't like playing non-defenders but he has no choice this year. Last year he benched Trez because of his bad defense. This year he wishes he could bench Melo but he and LeBron are literally the only SF/PF's on the roster (with Ariza out).

Three, they're uninterested and cocky. They have no grit or passion. 90% of their roster has "been there, done that." This is not good for a regular season team. The problem is they're way over their heads and not as good as they think they are. If they think they can walk into the playoffs and beat their first round opponent, they're delusional.

Fourth and sort of a side note: Westbrook isn't to blame for most of the season's failures so far. Sure, they gave up a lot of depth to get him, but let's not act like that "depth" helped them last season. They still lost in the first round. Kuzma, KCP and Trez were trash the entire series. Just because they're helping WAS win a few regular season games doesn't mean they won the trade. Westbrook is still a better player than most team's 3rd best player and the Lakers were desperate in the offseason, let's be real. People try to act like they would've walked past Phoenix if AD didn't get hurt but they forget that they lost game 1 to the Suns with a healthy roster and were losing in game 4 before AD went down.

Be better.

[Jadoogar]

Lebron has missed a lot of time but we all knew that was going to happen, dude is 37. Westbrook was brought in to help mitigate his absences but on the whole, that hasn't really happened.

I think AD should get some of the blame, he's clearly not a #1 on a good team.

[SharpyShuffle]

Blame all of them. Like, AD only has two votes because he's clearly not as mush to blame as LeBron, Pelinka or WB, but still AD deserves a good slice of blame for being so underwhelming. He's not old and accomplished like LeBron, he's supposed to be entering his prime and yet he seems lazy and passive like he thinks he's too good for November games

[R-DAWG]

In my opinion, the thing that would swing this roster for the Lakers is what they could get out of the few 2-way, 3 and D type players they have on the roster - Kent Bazemore, Trevor Ariza, and Talen Horton-Tucker. Both Ariza and Bazemore were solid rotation players last season, and if they performed at that level this year, you could get away with them as fringe starters with a 3 all-star lineup. However, Ariza hasn't played and Bazemore has been horrible. THT is still a project, and to be honest, his skill set isn't a great fit in a backcourt with Westbrook. He's the Lakers only trade chip and it wouldn't surprise me if he is shopped for a player that is a more consistent 3 point shooter and defender.

One other observation between the Lakers and Brooklyn - Brooklyn has been able to find rotation pieces in the margins - specifically Nic Claxton and Bruce Brown. Both guys are performing above their contract levels. Regarding THT above, sure he's a 2nd rd pick find, but he's being paid based on potential not production at this point.

Big picture wise Lebron James hasn't been in the lineup consistently, and we should hold off judgement on the Big 3 until they have the benefit of 15-20 games together. Remember, the HEATles started out around .500 after 20 games. And we have to assume that the final Lakers roster will look differently after the trade deadline and buyout season - Lakers have some flexibility with THT as a prospect/contract, creating an expiring contract with Wes Matthews bird rights in a S/T, and cobbling together 2-3 min salary contracts and 2nd rd picks to bring back between $4.2-$6.3MM in salary in addition to the buyout market (and for all we know a guy like Danny Green can be used to facilitate a trade and end up back on the Lakers roster - something that would be HUGE).

[-Luke-]

Who's to blame? Pelinka, LeBron, AD, Westbrook and injuries.
Who will be fired? Vogel

[Blame Rasho]

I blame Slava Medvedenko.

[ZombieKilla]

I'm missing the option: Lebron James for pressuring Rob Pelinka to trade for Russell Westbrook

James Harden pressuring Daryl Morey to trade for Russell Westbrook was the beginning of the end for the Rockets.

[ConSarnit]

so,,,if lebron chose westbrook over shooting, then it's up to pelinka to get support for lebron

i don't denegrate lebron for choosing westbrook. in his mind he chose to face 21/22 with help at the point rather than shooters. he felt he could overcome lack of shooters more than lack of support in the managing the team. being tuned into his body as lebron is, that was his choice. what i find interesting is that while the talking heads acknowledge the choice of the two they seem unwilling to accept it, as if they know his body better than lebron himself. i'm pretty sure lebron would have chose lillard if dame was there,,,but he wasn't, nor was beal. those two took themselves off the table.

that being said,,,,,is anybody paying attention to what's going on in the league or what! with the timely ot untimely lebron injuries over the past year, would is not be safe to say the decade is over and the nba has moved into the parity of the 20's. i mean are gsw, chi, and the wiz THAT GOOD or does the the league just suck

Sorta tough to fill in the gaps when you bring in a guy making $44m

[The Explorer]

Lebron teams always get off to slow starts. They will be fine.