Once again, the Los Angeles Lakers entered the offseason with high aspirations.
And, once again, they might end up empty-handed.
The word around the league was that LeBron James was even willing to take a pay cut to get more stars to Southern California, but most of them either didn’t get the memo or didn’t care about it.
James wound up taking a two-year, maximum contract extension, thus hampering Rob Pelinka’s ability to land any big-name player that could’ve still been available.
Nonetheless, that shouldn’t make much of a difference, claims Zach Lowe.
Talking on ESPN’s Get Up, Lowe argued that there wasn’t a single move Pelinka and the Lakers could realistically make to close the gap between them and other contenders.
"They're a good team in the Western Conference. … There's a big gap between a good team and a great team and I'm not sure how they can close it."
—@ZachLowe_NBA on the Lakers 
pic.twitter.com/FoXO4tiYeu
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) July 4, 2024
Per Lowe, the Lakers have been chasing their tail ever since they traded their championship-caliber supporting cast and let Alex Caruso walk to trade for Russell Westbrook.
And while they’ve done a solid job of becoming a good team, which isn’t easy to do in the Western Conference, being just ‘good’ isn’t enough to get the job done in such a stacked conference.
Lowe claimed that even if the Lakers land a potential future Hall of Famer like DeMar DeRozan, that just won’t be enough.
Last season, LeBron admitted that they weren’t good enough to win it all, and this roster isn’t much different, so it didn’t make much sense to leave money on the table if he knew he wasn’t going to play for a championship anyway.
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