The Lakers will no longer toss this summer, which is both surprising and reasonable.
James has played a full 5 seasons with the Lakers, most of the time, except for him and Davis, the people around him come and go like a marquee, tossing and turning, winning a championship once in 4 years, a Western Conference final, a first round, and once not entering the playoffs.
Almost every summer, everyone's first thought is what big names the Lakers are looking for this year. But this year changed, and the Lakers decided not to toss around.
General manager Pelinka made public his summer goals at the end of the season, first retaining Reeves and Hachimura before signing Russell at No. 1 to try to keep Schroeder. Because the Lakers have Vanderbilt's option, they took the lead in announcing a $4.7 million contract for next season.
Such a non-tossing Lakers is somewhat unaccustomed.
Looking back on James' 5-year career with the Lakers, Pei has spent every year in a state of panic.
Pei's pressure mainly comes from these two aspects: first, with James, you must win the championship; Second, if you didn't win the championship, it must be that you can't wear it, and you don't have a big name with power.
Therefore, compared with other general managers, Mr. Pei is in panic throughout the year, always tossing, tossing in the summer, tossing in the trade deadline, and tossing once in March before the start of the playoffs.
In these 5 seasons, the roster will be up to 20 people almost every year, and frequent trades and signings have made frequent changes in the Lakers' starting lineup, but with little effect.
Many people think that the Lakers won the championship in 2020 because of the effect of park closure, so if you look closely, they used a total of 12 starters that season, the fewest in 5 years.
2018-19
"Big ball" Bauer
James
Ingram
Kuzma
Mcgee
Subs: Rondo/Caldwell-Pope/Hart/Chandler/Zubac/Stephenson
2019-20
Bradley
Danny Green
James
Davis
Mcgee
Subs: Kuzma/Rondo/Caldwell-Pope/Howard/Caruso/Horton-Tucker/Big Morris/Cook/Dudley
2020-21
Schroeder
Caldwell-Pope
James
Davis
Gasol Jr. / Drummond
Subs: Caruso/Kuzma/Grand Morris/Matthews/Horton-Tucker/Harrell
2021-22
Wei Shao
Bradley
James
Stanley Johnson/Howard/Jordan Jr
Davis
Replacements: Anthony/Reeves/Horton-Tucker/Ellington/Bazemore
2022-23
Schroeder/Russell
Beverley/Troy Brown/Lonnie Walker/Beasley
James
Davis
Vanderbilt/Thomas Bryant
Subs: Wilson/Reeves/Hachimura Base/Gabriel/Brown/Walker
James's mansion in Beverly Hills was demolished and rebuilt, with the original appearance below and the construction site above.
In fact, the practice of constantly tossing is not only Pei Zong's patent. Looking back at James' return to Cleveland, the Cavaliers' David Griffin is also tossed every year, sometimes replacing half of the team in the season,
There are two particularly strange but plausible logics that underpin this toss-up:
First of all, almost everyone agrees that James is getting older and needs to seize the moment and quickly assemble the right lineup to win the championship. This idea has formed a consensus since James was 30 years old, as if without tossing it, he can't live James's golden season, and the general manager is not conscientious enough. As a result, James hit the age of 38, became the all-time scoring leader, and is still playing.
Another logic is that every toss is still rewarding, after all, James has led Eastern Conference teams to the Finals for 8 consecutive years, which seems to show that tossing is effective.
But after James arrived with the Lakers, the effect of tossing the lineup year after year was not as good as his in the East, especially the biggest toss-up - Wei Shao joined the team to form the "Big Three" - and did not even make the playoffs.
The so-called extreme of things must be reversed, do not hit the south wall and do not look back, this time and Wei Shao to form the "Big Three" failure, let the Lakers understand a truth: there is no most happy marriage, only the most suitable marriage. The two mid-season deals allowed the Lakers to form a relatively suitable roster in a short period of time and reach the Western Conference finals in one fell swoop.
Whether it was Pei who decided not to toss, or the aunt who didn't let the match toss, or James who was annoyed, in short, the Lakers decided to try a new path - to maintain continuity. Continuity is the foundation of the prosperity of many strong captains.
Looking at the Lakers tossing every year in the past, the result is that it takes half a season to run in every year. Unfamiliarity with each other, combined with injuries, the wear and tear of the regular season is very high. It's hard to find a little sense that the season is over.
The current Lakers roster is simply not perfect: Vanderbilt can't shoot, and can only defend against relatively slow outside big names in a few matchups; Russell would drop the chain in key games, and the three-point time that seemed to be accurate was not working.
But overall, the Lakers have characteristics of this roster, especially Reeves and Hachimura are very efficient, and the performance in the playoffs proves that these two are very adaptable.
As for Schroder, Lonnie Walker, Troy Brown, etc., they are also very characteristic role players. In the past, the Lakers focused on tossing areas that were role players and substitutes, and if these two parts could be stabilized, then the Lakers could save a lot of running-in time.
Whether it's for the manager, for James and Davis, or for all the roles and substitutes, the run-in is a very painful process. You have to look for the strengths of your teammates, suppress your strengths, can't play as you want, and face all kinds of questions on social media every day. If you encounter a large injury period of core players, you have to waste a lot of time.
If you don't toss and keep the squad stable, you can save a lot of trouble, and don't panic when hit by the tide of illness, because everyone is already familiar with each other and can use the experience of last season to deal with it calmly.
Of course, not tossing does not mean completely following last season's script, after all, the Lakers were swept by the Nuggets in the Western Conference final, which shows that there are still many problems with the existing roster. Russell's instability, Vanderbilt's inability to shoot, the lack of forward three-point shooters, and Davis inside can't do Jokic, these are all key reasons to toss in previous years.
If you give up the toss, you need to fix and reinforce these points, which requires Davis and Russell to improve themselves, at most replace and supplement individual personnel, such as to grab Bruce Brown, but not a large-scale toss. Because even if you strengthen these weaknesses, new problems will arise. Every year, the old problems are changed, and the new ones are tossed out.
But the Lakers can't afford to toss anymore, and by this time next year, it's time for Davis and James to reconsider their contracts.