The Los Angeles Lakers season that went into overdrive with Luka Doncic’s arrival has ended with a whimper as the Minnesota Timberwolves have bounced them out in five games.
The Luka Doncic trade catapulted the Los Angeles Lakers to third in the regular-season and they started as favourites against fifth-seed Minnesota Timberwolves.
However, the worst of the Lakers was exposed by the Timberwolves’ bigs, with the likes of Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle feasting on the Lakers’ lack of size and physicality.
In the aftermath of the Lakers’ 96-103 loss, LeBron James addressed the elephant in the room which left the Lakers short in that department, the Doncic trade that saw Anthony Davis move in the opposite direction.
James had made no secret of the fact that from the very moment Doncic arrived, the team would adjust to him instead of it being the other way around.
It led to some truly sparkling regular-season games but over a seven-game series that became increasingly about matchups, it left the Lakers short in the interior.
What looked like a generational trade, and it still might age to be one, currently looks like it has left the Lakers lopsided towards attack rather than defense.
James addressed how the ‘dynamics changed’ on the Lakers after the ‘challenging’ Doncic trade that will come as music to the ears of Anthony Davis.
James said: “Anytime you make a big acquisition in the middle of the season, it’s always going to be challenging. Not only for me, but for Austin Reaves and the rest of the group. We went from wanting to touch the ball in [Anthony Davis’] hands and dynamic changed to how we can change our approach to best fit Luka’s game.
“There were times it didn’t look so well, but we kind of figured it out with more games. I still don’t think we had enough time to mesh but for the time we had I thought we ended the regular season very well.”
Having a generational superstar in Luka Doncic on the books is undoubtedly a blessing and he’s shown that he can drag a franchise to the Finals just last season but the Lakers roster, as currently constructed, will always be found wanting in the post-season.
They might have gotten better in the regular-season after trading away Davis but it has left them drastically short on length and physicality.
Austin Reaves might become a casualty of the same in the off-season after a terrible playoff series ended with an embarrassing game five display.
The Lakers might have thought that pairing Doncic with James was enough on its own to get them closer to the promised land but the superstars only take the team over the hump, the rest of the roster has to get to the hump first.
The Lakers roster, as constructed, is just not balanced enough to do that after the Doncic trade.
