The Los Angeles Lakers didn’t have the season they anticipated — and they certainly didn’t have the caliber of season they paid for.
Their 33-49 finish was good enough for fourth in the Pacific Division and 11th in the Western Conference. Their superstars — LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook — struggled to mesh.
In addition, L.A. dealt with injuries all season and couldn’t seem to find a rhythm.
James averaged 30.3 points, 8.2 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game but missed 26 games. Westbrook was present for 78 of the Lakers’ 82 games, but averaged his lowest point per game total since his second season back in 2009-10, at 18.5 PPG. Anthony Davis only played 40 games — less than half the season — averaging 23.2 points, 9.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists.
The three could seemingly never catch each other on the court at the same time, only playing 21 games together as a trio, going 11-10.
And with that, former Laker great James Worthy had a message for the franchise as it moves forward: start building through the draft.
“The Lakers, I think they have refused to build over the years,” Worthy on the “Stoney & Jansen Show.” “We’ve had some good players: Brandon Ingram, Julius Randle, Lonzo Ball. We have tried to win quickly. In Kobe Bryant’s last few years, we brought in Steve Nash, who was a little bit older, and Dwight Howard came in with a back injury. We traded away draft picks to try to win immediately, and I think they’re going to have to think about how they need to build.”
In order to acquire Davis back in 2019, the Lakers traded away Ball, Ingram, Josh Hart and three first-round picks.
In order to acquire Westbrook last summer, the Lakers gave up Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Montrezl Harrell and more.
Worthy continued his analysis of L.A.
“You look at Memphis, you look at the way Boston is playing right now, you look at the way Milwaukee has built a team over time. We need to create players that have cohesiveness. We had it a couple of…
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