Los Angeles, we have a problem.
At least that’s what Lakers legend Magic Johnson believes. After his beloved team was eliminated in the NBA playoffs by the Nuggets, he claimed in a series of posts on X on Tuesday that there were problems with the team.
The Lakers lost the first three games of the series and avoided a sweep with a Game 4 win, but the final nail in the coffin came Monday night with a 108-106 loss in Game 5.
“Lake Country, we have a problem.” johnson wrote. “All the good teams in the West like the Nuggets, Timberwolves, Thunder and Mavs are young and talented. And the big elephant in the room is the Spurs, who with Victor Wembaneyama will definitely be a playoff team next season.
“For the Lakers to compete with all these teams, they have to improve their roster.”
Los Angeles is definitely at a crossroads after being eliminated early in the playoffs and needing to win the play-in round to advance to the first round.
Superstar LeBron James has said his future with the Lakers is undecided, and head coach Darvin Ham’s job security is in question.
“The Lakers have no one to blame but themselves.” Johnson continued in another post.. “If they hadn’t lost too many games due to load management, they wouldn’t have made it to the play-in games this season or finished as a No. 7 seed.”
he added“And the number one reason why the Lakers can’t beat Denver in seven straight games is because the Nuggets are mentally and physically tougher than the Lakers.”
There were some flaws in the second half of Johnson’s reasoning, especially the load management aspect.
Criticizing this concept has become very common in the NBA, but the Lakers may not have been as guilty of it as Johnson says.
James suffered a lingering ankle injury after the All-Star break, but has only missed three games since March 1, and Anthony Davis has only missed two games during that time.
And looking at the team’s roster, the Lakers had six players who appeared in at least 70 games during the regular season.
As usual, social media users was Be quick to criticize Johnson For his views on load management.
Either way, Los Angeles has issues that need to be addressed before the 2024-25 season begins.
