The Lakers have a history of making some questionable moves, with their most recent being sitting out LeBron James and playing the Golden State Warriors in last year’s NBA Finals. This move has led to two embarrassing losses for them at Staples Center as they were quickly swept by the Warriors.
The “lakers schroder offer” is a decision that the Los Angeles Lakers made in 2016. The Lakers signed Schroder to a four year, $70 million deal. However, he left the team after one season and was traded to the Hawks for Dario Saric.
The Los Angeles Lakers have had a rough start. That’s a nice way of expressing things. LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers’ executive management have made some dubious decisions in recent years, particularly this summer. But it goes back far more. The Lakers rebuilt their club from the ground up once LBJ opted to go west. Two of those actions, in particular, came back to haunt them when they were thrashed by the Chicago Bulls on Nov. 15.
This summer, the Lakers let guard Alex Caruso depart, and he inked a free-agent contract with the Chicago Bulls. When the Lakers executed the blockbuster deal to get Anthony Davis from New Orleans, one of the key components they shipped out was point guard Lonzo Ball, who joined the Bulls this summer as well.
Those two, along with DeMar DeRozan, a native of Los Angeles, were instrumental in shredding the Lakers in front of their own supporters at Staples Center.
The Los Angeles Lakers were thrashed 121-103 by the Chicago Bulls.
The Lakers’ offense continued to rely on Anthony Davis while James was sidelined with an abdominal injury. He was the center of attention in Los Angeles.
He was, nevertheless, the center of attention in Chicago.
Davis scored 20 points but had four turnovers and a minus-22 rating. All night, he was harassed and irritated by two — and often three — Bulls smashing into his neighborhood.
Davis only tried nine shots, but he faced 15 double teams, the most in any game since coming in Los Angeles, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
He was eventually dismissed in the fourth quarter, with Los Angeles behind by more than 20 points.
“That sort of double team hasn’t been seen this year,” Lakers head coach Frank Vogel stated after the game via Lakers Nation. “Credit to Chicago for being a hard-charging city. With post frontals and quick double teams, they were attempting to take him out of the game.”
The defense played a big role in the victory, but two former Lake Show members were even more important.
The victory was aided by two Chicago Bulls players, both of whom were former Lakers.
On November 15, 2021, Chicago Bulls players Alex Caruso and Lonzo Ball react to a play during a game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center. | Getty Images/Katelyn Mulcahy
Without James, the Bulls shut down LA’s greatest offensive danger, but it was Chicago’s offense that stole the show.
DeMar DeRozan, a local product, led all scorers with 38 points. Zach LaVine added 26 points, but it was former Laker Lonzo Ball, who was selected second overall in the 2017 draft by the Lakers, who stole the show.
Against his previous squad, Ball recorded a season-high 27 points, eight assists, and seven rebounds. From three attempts, the former UCLA great was 7-of-10.
As a team, LA made six 3-pointers.
Ball got 27 points, while Caruso had none. However, in true Bald Mamba flair, he devised new methods to influence the game.
For the last two seasons, the undrafted rookie from Texas A&M has been LA’s greatest perimeter defender. The Lakers and their supporters were so taken by his effort and hustling that they conducted a Caruso Tribute before the game.
A homage to a guy who has averaged 6.0 points per game throughout his five seasons with the team seems appropriate.
Frank Vogel, the Lakers’ head coach, would have turned to DeRozan, Ball, or LaVine to guard them. That would have been Caruso, who was busy causing Russell Westbrook to commit four turnovers and finish the game with a minus-13 rating.
Ball was a part of the Davis trade that brought him to Los Angeles. The Lakers are making that move 99 times out of 100; Davis is the clear superstar.
Caruso, on the other hand, might have been kept if the company had been ready to go a bit more into the luxury tax. Instead, GM Rob Pelinka and LeBron chose to release Caruso, retain a younger player in Talen Horton-Tucker, and fill the rest of the roster with veterans on low wages.
The franchise could have chosen not to go all-in on Westbrook as well, another offseason decision that has paid handsomely thus far.
The Bulls and Lakers are now traveling in opposite directions.
With the victory, Chicago improved to 10-4. The Bulls trail the East-leading Washington Wizards by a half-game.
Los Angeles, on the other side, fell to 8-7. The Lakers have been without James, which has put a kink in the team’s early-season preparations. However, in the absence of The King, Davis has struggled to put the franchise on his shoulders, and Westbrook is turning the ball over an alarming 5.3 times a game.
Since James’ arrival in 2018, the Purple and Gold have made two blockbuster deals and many peripheral free-agent moves. In the defeat to Chicago, Ball and Caruso were the two who came back to bother them, but they weren’t the only ones. (For the record, DeRozan also considered signing with the Lakers this summer.)
For this season’s roster building, Pelinka and LeBron have been scrutinized. It seems that the idea was to create a Big Three and surround it with experience. That strategy has so far failed.
While the Bulls continue to hover at the top of the Eastern Conference, the Lakers have yet to find the proper mix to accomplish the same in the Western Conference. The front-office actions taken since James’ arrival were sufficient to win the NBA Championship in 2020.
They have not, however, been good enough since then.
NBA.com provided all data.
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The “los angeles lakers” is a professional basketball team that plays in the National Basketball Association. The Lakers’ past mistakes continue to haunt them as two of their most inexcusable decisions just humiliated them at Staples Center.
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