Los Angeles Lakers All- Star Lebron James has missed the last 15 games due to the same groin injury that took him out of of the Christmas Day win against the Golden State Warriors.
By Cody Marquis / Jan 24, 2019, 11:00am EST
Another game missed for The King. Another struggling game for the Future of the Lakers.
After a tough loss 130-111 to The Golden State Warriors on Monday, questions began to rise among the media as to “ Were the Los Angeles Lakers going to be able to make the playoffs in this losing drought?” Lebron James has missed the last 15 games due to the groin injury he encountered when playing at Golden State on Christmas Day, The Lakers have gone 4-11 with James being on the Injured Reserve. Along with James being out, backup point guard Rajon Rondo hit the Injured Reserve list as well after needing surgery for a broken index finger. After two key Lakers hit the I.R. it was their young raw talented point guard Lonzo Ball who hit the list next after rolling his ankle in a 138-134 loss vs the Houston Rockets.
So the question is “ What are the Lakers going to do and who is gonna step up?”
Over the past 15 games, it’s been the young core of Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma really stepping up and playing well for the Lakers. With James on the court, Ball is averaging 7.6 points per game, Kuzma is averaging 14.8 points per game and Ingram is averaging 14.6 points per game. This making the total for all three 37 points per game. Ever since James injury these numbers have rose dramatically as these three needed to be scoring to have a chance to win. Lonzo’s points per game rose to 13.8, Kyle Kuzma’s rose to 22.9 and Brandon Ingram rose his points per game 16.4 making the total rise to 53.1 points per game all together.
Before Lebron’s injury, this tweet by @EdsonCGuido states that the Lakers are better with James not on the floor. This tweet was from November 6, way before James hurt his groin.
This tweet shows that the Lakers are way better with Lebron not on the court as in meaning to offensive rating and defensive rating, but what @EdsonCGuido does not show is how many points per game the Lakers average as a team. With The King on the court playing for his average forty minutes per game the Lakers are averaging 121 points per game, but without Lebron the Lakers show lack of scoring as without him on the court, they are averaging 105 points per game. To win games in the NBA today you have to have a dominant scorer who helps you put up at least 120 points per game as if you don’t put up this much, your chances of winning decrease massively. Lebron is having a quiet All-Star season. Not leading the NBA in points per game or All-Star votes, but is still averaging 27.3 points per game, 8.3 rebounds per game and 7.1 assists per game. These numbers are still very good for 34 year old James.
Looking forward to the Lakers future and what they need to do to get back to there winning mentality, there are a couple aspects that need to happen for them to be considered a contender once again. For one, injuries have to stop taking over the there roster. Once Lebron James, Rajon Rondo and Lonzo Ball all fully come back to being healthy then that will be the first step to them having success once again. The second reason would be for the Lakers to make a blockbuster trade to get that one more piece for them to contend with the Golden State Warriors. This would mean the Lakers either giving up the young talent of either Brandon Ingram or Kyle Kuzma with some draft picks to get in return a franchise player or another talent to help along side the King.
The key aspect for them to win the West and make the finals would be to get a dominant in big man by making a trade for either Anthony Davis, Nikola Vucevic or even the more mature talent of Paul Millsap. I think if the Lakers could pull off one of these trades mentioned above then I believe that the Lakers could contend with the Warriors and could potentially bring Lebron his fourth ring and also help the Lakers bring their franchise 17th NBA finals trophy.