- Lakers 2021-2022
WHEN Rob Pelinka put together this 2021-22 Los Angeles Lakers team. No one ever imagined the season would turn out like this.
NO PLAYOFFS
NO Championship
Just an early off-season for the Los Angeles Lakers which lead to HC Frank Vogel taking the fall.
Vogel went a whopping 127-98 with the Lakers in three seasons and won one Championship.
This was the team that was poised to bounce back from an early exit in the playoffs last season and bring another championship back to the city of angels. A roster full of stars ended up being the oldest team in the league and when the ball went up, it showed on the court.
From the start of the season, the Lakers could never quite get it going. The chemistry just wasn’t there. As eyes started to roll the CRITICISM got louder.
How could the Lakers possibly be so horrible?
If that wasn’t bad enough the injuries started to roll in starting with Los Angeles big man Anthony Davis suffering a high-grade ankle sprain. He would go on to miss 4 weeks of play.
Forcing a LeBron James in year 19 to turn it up a notch. James would go on to break major NBA records
Passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for most points scored in NBA history combing regular season and postseason.
Abdul-Jabbar has held the record since 1984.
"I think it's about time. I'm not gonna get jealous of LeBron, he deserves it," Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, to @Malika_Andrews on the ESPN broadcast, when asked about LeBron eventually passing his all-time regular season scoring record.
Although the season went great for LeBron James some of his superstar teammates, did not fare so well.
Point guard Russell Westbrook arguably played his worst season to date. Averaging 18.5 points per game and a season-high 3.8 turnovers per game this season. Throughout the season trade rumors roared but Jeanie Buss and the Lakers refused to pull the trigger.
- Westbrook on the Lakers Season.
“When I first got here and just being a person that, unfortunately, people create narratives of me and who I am and what I do, what I believe in that are just not true," Westbrook told reporters. "I’m always having to, like, prove myself again year after year after year which is, to me, just unfair, there’s really no reason I have to do that. So, when I first got here, I just felt that I never was given a fair chance just to be who I needed to be to be able to help this team.”
As it goes for Anthony Davis, the big man would finally return to the starting lineup. Just to be hit with various injuries throughout the season.
Nov 24, Fever
Dec 10-15, Sore left knee
Dec 17, Left knee collision
Davis would eventually go down with an MCL Sprain that would sideline him for 17 games.
Jan 28, Wrist injury
Feb 16-17 midfoot sprain 4 weeks
With less than 20 games remaining Davis would eventually return to the starting lineup but he was nowhere near 100% ultimately missing 39 games this season.
- Davis on an injury riddled Laker Season.
"I think the biggest thing that I think about personally is what we could have been, had we stayed healthy all year,"
"What could we have been. Guys feel like, 'OK, what could we have been if I was healthy all year, (LeBron James]) was healthy, (Kendrick Nunn) was healthy.' You think about those things. We put this team together and it looked good on paper, but we haven't had a chance to reach that potential with guys in and out of the lineup.
"So the most frustrating part of this season is not being sure of what we could have been."
The 2021-2022 NBA season was just not the Laker's year. An exhausted LeBron James would eventually go down with an ankle injury that would sideline him for the remainder of the season. The Lakers would go on to finish the season 31-49, some say this season will go down as the worst season in Laker history.
A NEW ALL-TIME LOW!
