With All-Star Lakers forward LeBron James unavailable indefinitely as he deals with a high-ankle sprain, Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports wonders if a rival contender like the Clippers, Jazz, Heat, or Nets will be more motivated to try to make roster improvements at the trade deadline.
Meanwhile, Jovan Buha of The Athletic considers whether James joining his fellow injured L.A. All-Star Anthony Davis on the sidelines could impact the Lakers’ trade deadline plans. Frank Vogel certainly seems to think so.
“I’m sure we’ll get into deeper conversations in the coming days,” the Lakers’ head coach said. “But, obviously, when you have two key guys that are gonna be out, you look at the trade market differently and obviously the buyout market differently, so those are conversations that will be had in the coming days.”
Buha opines that the Lakers could use an additional ball-handler with James and Davis sidelined.
There’s more out of California:
- Warriors big men James Wiseman and Eric Paschall have been given the green light to return to the floor for Golden State during tonight’s game against the Sixers, per Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link). Both players have been quarantining per the league’s coronavirus protocols since last week.
- Warriors head coach Steve Kerr noted that All-Star point guard Stephen Curry will miss at least another week of play as he recovers from an inflamed tailbone, Anthony Slater of The Athletic writes. “This is going to be a little bit longer than we thought and hoped,” Kerr said. The team will reassess Curry’s injury next week.
- Rookie Warriors center James Wiseman has been named the club’s starter at the position for the rest of the season, Anthony Slater of The Athletic reports. “James has come along really well. He’s picked up a lot of the concepts,” Kerr said. “He needs to be out there.”
This gives the Lakers an easy excuse when they fail to defend their title.
Wow you said it so it must be true. Lakers can be the 6 seed. It don’t matter. If AD and LeBron play they are making the Finals.
The west is much tougher this year unlike last year with so many injured teams in the playoffs. Lots of injuries can happen between now and playoff time.
It does not matter, if lebron & AD are both healthy, they’re gonna defend the title, just not sure if they can beat the nets!
Could you be any more contradicting in one sentence, Kowalski?
Back in the finals, my bad…
Before Anthony Davis was hurt the Lakers were 21-6, they’ve gone 7-10 since then and have lost three in a row since LeBron was hurt.
This blind optimism from their fans is admirable, but they need to be realistic. Things are going to get worse before they get better.
They’ll both be back by the playoffs, and that’s really all that matters. And saying things are going to get worse before they get better is a no-brainer considering that they’re going to be without their two best players for probably the next two weeks.
Lebron and AD will be back for the playoffs and that’s all that matter. 2 of the top 5 players in the league on the same team. They should and will be the favorites to win the title.
Pretty easy to agree with here. Expect some rapids, then the playoffs. They need to cancel the carnie play-in tournament. Its okay to be a loser, it builds character hopefully the next season. Lakers do not need to play extra games with losing teams as a gimmick if they fall into play-in affected territory due to these short term injuries. Maybe it will, and kill the dumb idea finally.
Curry is literally butthurt after his team beat Houston. Get well soon.
I consider what Kerr said the official tanking declaration. They’re going to play the rookie and start him the rest of the way and Curry is out another week with a bruised tailbone… but he’s getting up and down on the bench during last night’s Sixers game giving instructions and helping out. Let the tanking begin. They’ll be sellers at the deadline not buyers. It’s official now.
So what does this mean for the next couple days? It means they’ll finish in the bottom 20 so they’ll keep the Kelly oubre draft pick, and they’ll try to trade Oubre for another pic. I can’t see anyone else they would try to dump because nobody would want any of these guys that the Warriors would consider expendable.
Agree with this, and I would be surprised if Oubre is still on the team after the deadline. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Wiggins is moved after the season when they have a better sense of their draft chess pieces.
If the Nets, Sixes improve in the East, the Jazz,Clippers, Suns, Nuggets all improve with buy outs or trades, the Lakers will have 2 well rested, hungry players that will motivate & get the rest of the Laker players ready for the playoffs.
Its been a couple decades since an MVP missed more than 7 games… Curry is out.