The regular season is over with 10 games left, and while the Lakers still have a theoretical chance to hit the playoffs through a playoff, the difficulty can be said to be very large. This is undoubtedly one of the most disappointing seasons in Lakers history, and while it may have been worse a few years ago in terms of record alone, it is particularly prominent when considering the gap between expectations and reality.
The Lakers have a lot of problems, one of which is the lack of talent, because the team has eaten Russell Westbrook's super salary, and they can only fill their lineup by bringing in experienced base salary veterans, and few of these players are outstanding. Given that the Lakers are the oldest team in the league on average this season, they have multiple players who may choose to retire after the end of the season. Maybe they'll stick with it so they don't have to retire with such a humiliating record, but maybe it's that frustration that will convince them to leave the game, and here are three Lakers players who could retire after this season.
1 Trevo-Ariza
The veteran returned to the Los Angeles Lakers who won the championship last summer, and Lakers fans were initially very excited about the return of the 3D wing player, seeing him as one of the lakers' most important reinforcements in the offseason, but due to ankle surgery, the veteran did not make his season debut until December, and it didn't take long for the Lakers to figure out that Ariza was unlikely to make any meaningful contributions on the court.
Ariza has actually dropped out of the Lakers' rotation lineup, and after several injuries, Ariza may no longer have the athletic ability to play professional basketball, in fact, as early as October 2021, after being traded to the Oklahoma Thunder, he has not played professional basketball for more than a year, and at that time he seems to have the idea of retiring. But after being traded to the Miami Heat, his career was forcibly extended and then signed by the Lakers, and after watching his performance this season, it's hard to imagine a team wanting to sign him, unless those teams have fallen into despair.
2 Dwight Howard
Two and a half years ago, the Lakers saved Howard's career from the tragic fate of retirement, and no team wanted to sign Howard before the start of the 2019-20 season, and if it were not for DeMarcus Cousins who suffered a major injury to the front cruciate ligament tear before the start of the season, the Lakers would not have signed Howard.
Since then, Howard has extended his career for three seasons, two of which were with the Lakers, and even won a championship to make his Hall of Fame-level career without regrets, and for the 36-year-old Howard, it may be time to give up.
Traditional defensive centers are no longer so important in today's NBA, because there are players who can protect the basket better than Howard, they are even much younger than Howard, and Howard himself has nothing to prove, and he believes that he may give up after this year.
3 Carmelo Anthony
Anthony is certainly the best player on the list, giving the Los Angeles Lakers everything they could have hoped for after signing him to a one-year pay contract last summer, however due to age and style of play, this could be the last dance of Cameello's career.
Anthony does have a smaller chance of retiring than the other two players on the roster, but if the Lakers choose not to sign him, then no other team can sign him, and while Anthony has played his role as a three-point pitcher very well with the Lakers, his defense is still a problem, so he has little use in the playoffs.
The only regret of Anthony's career is not winning the championship, which may prompt him to try to return and join a top team, but the problem is that Anthony will celebrate his 38th birthday in 2022-23, not many people are still playing in the NBA in this age group, and he has made enough money in his career to make a career of 20 years, even without a championship ring, no one can blame him.