The Los Angeles Lakers are in a real bad spot right now.
The team is 26-30 on the year and suffered an ugly loss Wednesday night against a depleted Portland Trail Blazers team.
But Thursday was a day of new opportunity.
The trade deadline arrived Thursday afternoon and plenty of Lakers fans expected some big deals to take place.
Instead, they did absolutely nothing.
No deal for the Lakers, source tells ESPN. THey'll focus on the buyout market.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 10, 2022
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Lakers are instead focusing on the buyout market.
That could still bring some good news, but it is not what fans wanted to hear when other teams were active and busy Thursday.
One Looming Problem In LA
Russell Westbrook not being traded will have plenty of fans in Los Angeles upset.
However, such a deal was nearly impossible given his massive salary and his player option for next season.
The only logical move would be to swap him for John Wall.
The Lakers instead decided to avoid that hassle and just accepted the fact they are stuck with Westbrook.
Yet there must still be an ominous feeling hanging over the entire team.
The 26-30 record has them in ninth place in the West.
Another bad slide could see the Lakers fall out of the top 10, which would be arguably the most shocking story of the NBA season.
In 2018 the Cavs were 31-22 when Cleveland GM Koby Altman traded six players and a pick in three separate deals to completely overhaul the roster and CLE made it back to the Finals. Today, with the Lakers at 26-30, LAL’s front office completed zero trades to change up the team
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) February 10, 2022
Will scouring the buyout market bring in a star?
No, and that is the problem fans are going to be furious about.
Wednesday night was a perfect example of the current state of the team.
LeBron James logged 37 minutes and scored 30 points.
Anthony Davis added 17 points, but they still fell against a Portland team without Damian Lillard or CJ McCollum.
Things are bad in LA and the front office did nothing to help the team improve.
