The Los Angeles Lakers, who were in a life-and-death battle with the Suns, have suffered a wave of 6 consecutive losses. In the case that the gap between the two sides is obvious, James also chose to continue the truce, so he basically sentenced the Lakers to death.
In the midst of the game, the Spurs took the lead in the good news, and they won the Nuggets 116-97 and grasped the absolute initiative. So as long as the Lakers lose this game, then they will completely miss the play-offs this season.
In the end, the Lakers failed to perform a miracle, losing to the Suns 110-121, expanding the number of consecutive defeats to 7 games, and at the same time, they did not qualify for the playoffs. With 3 games left in the regular season, the Lakers can already draw an early end to this season.
The Lakers haven't had a happy ending this season, so they do need to learn from this frustrated trip and try to make a relevant remedy this offseason, looking forward to making a difference next season.
Not long ago, Magic Johnson and O'Neal have given the Lakers a support, believing that they should retain the dual core lineup of James and Thick Brow, and appropriately add some young players to form a lineup with defensive intensity.
The 37-year-old James, although he can still average 30.3 points, 8.2 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game this season, his dominance of the game has been significantly reduced, and he is also a little weak on the defensive end.
Thick eyebrows have not let the outside world "disappoint" this season, once again highlighting their own glass man attributes. In the 3 seasons of joining the Lakers, except for the first season, the last two seasons he has been due to various injuries, resulting in a very low attendance.
Last season, Thick Brow played only 36 games, and suffered a groin strain in the first round of the playoffs, causing the Lakers to be reversed by the Suns. He has only played 40 games this season, and even if he plays all three of them, he will play 43 games, and his attendance rate is just over 50%.
Although thick eyebrows are indeed one of the top interior lines in the league, he has never been able to get rid of injuries throughout his career. The reason why the Lakers have returned home in the past two seasons is basically that there is too much time for the lack of thick eyebrow injuries, resulting in too low attendance.
But Fan Thick Eyebrows can play their own battles this season, guaranteed to play about 60 games in the first season, even if the overall chemistry of the Lakers is not good, then it will not fall into the dilemma of not even being able to enter the playoffs.
With the loss to the Suns and the Spurs beating the Nuggets, the Lakers officially missed the playoffs. Currently, the Lakers are 11th in the West with a record of 31 wins and 48 losses. After the end of the season, they will basically lock in this awkward position.
From the thick eyebrows, James' double-core combination successfully won the championship in the first season, and then last season to stop the first round of the playoffs, and this year, not to mention the playoffs, even the playoffs can not enter, the Lakers' large-scale reinforcements in last offseason can be said to be a complete failure.
Now the Lakers' double core, although there are their own drawbacks, James is too old, thick eyebrows and too brittle, if the team really breaks them both apart, then there is no doubt that the Lakers will be far away from the ranks of winning the championship.
On a realistic level, Wei Shao, who has one year left on his contract and is a $47 million player option, will certainly execute the player option this summer without question, and next year will be 34-year-old Wei Shao, and it is better to take such a high salary than anything else.
Because in terms of Wei Shao's poor performance this season, he wants to win a "final contract" for himself later, which is basically unrealistic, and the Lakers' priority handling of Wei Shao's high salary burden has become inevitable.
Otherwise, the Lakers will struggle if they want to carry out related operations in the offseason. Although Westbrook said at an earlier press conference that he would plan to play with James and Thick Brow next season.
However, the Lakers, who are determined to win the championship, have no capital, time, and space, and then give Wei Shao to slowly integrate into the duo combination of James and thick eyebrows. Therefore, it is naturally better to be able to smoothly trade away Wei Shao in the offseason.
But from a practical point of view, it is really too difficult to clean up Wei Shao, and the Lakers are likely to be forced to buy out Wei Shao's sky-high contract of $47 million in 3-4 years with "extended payment" clauses, like the original buyout of Luol Deng.
This would give Westbrook the freedom to join any team willing to accept him after the buyout. At the same time, the Lakers can also reduce the salary pressure of the team and help the team to start rebuilding.
When it comes to this "extended payment", this is definitely a pain that Lakers fans do not want to mention. In the summer of 2018, the team bought out Rolle Deng on that term, paying him about $5 million a year.
The Lakers, who were able to successfully unwind, were also able to trade from the Pelicans in the summer of 2019 to get a thick eyebrow and successfully win the championship in the following season. This largely compensates for the impact of this wave of operations by Rohr Deng.
Although The burden of Luol Deng will not be officially freed this summer, this is indeed the best way for the Lakers to get rid of the burden of Wei Shao at this stage, rearrange the team, and once again embark on the road to the championship.
Westbrook, who returned to his hometown team this season to play, did not show the triple-double attributes of last season's Wizards. At present, Westbrook averages only 18.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game, and his personal data has shrunk significantly.
However, Westbrook's Ironman attribute, which has only missed 1 game so far this season, is still worth the risk of many teams. At least for those teams in the middle and lower reaches of the game, if they can get Westbrook, there is still a good chance to impact the playoffs.
If Pelinka can be lucky enough to send Westbrook away this summer to help the team get rid of this burden, then he will definitely compete for the "Best General Manager" award next season. As long as you get rid of Wei Shao, it will become easy and easy for the Lakers to rearrange.
There is no doubt that regaining defense and rejuvenation is the most important thing this Lakers want to make a comeback. As long as James and Thick Brow can stay healthy, then the Lakers will still be a very competitive team in the league in the next 1-2 years.
As for the third superstar, you can look for a no. 2 position that is more adept at projection, like the Wizards Bill, which is a good choice. There are actually many such stars in the league, and it is not necessary to need a superstar, ordinary stars can also.
This season's feathering is actually not a bad thing for the Lakers. They can just use this profound lesson to make the management recognize the reality and want to return to the top, which is really not an easy task.
If the Lakers really want to give up everything to rebuild completely, then it will have to wait until 2023, after James' contract expires. But in the next season, they still have to see what the combination effect of James and thick eyebrows is, and then evaluate.