If there’s one thing the Western Conference finals has taught us, it’s that there’s an enormous chasm between the teams in the penultimate round of the playoffs and the NBA’s other 28 ballclubs, including the Lakers.
The Thunder and Spurs have depth. They have stellar perimeter and interior defenders. They have multiple lasers. They have superstars. They have 10 players who are starring in their roles.
How do the Lakers catch up?
The Lakers are in a unique position. The Thunder and Spurs tanked before arming themselves with draft picks and orchestrating smart trades to climb back atop the league. That’s not an option for a Lakers franchise that has won 17 championships and has no patience for losing seasons.
Even Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka laughed that off as a potential strategy.
“It’s not the Lakers’ way,” Pelinka said after the team was swept out of the second round of the playoffs by the Thunder. “We have to find sustained excellence, so it does create at times a thread-the-needle [situation] where you gotta find a way to have championship rosters every year.”
So, that raises an interesting question.
If the Lakers can’t follow that model to build a contender, what should they do?
Should they hunt for another superstar?
Should they devote their resources (three first-round picks and up to about $55 million in cap space this offseason) to getting great role players?
This much is sure: Superstar chasing doesn’t equate to title winning.
The Lakers learned that firsthand after they blew up their 2020 championship roster to acquire Russell Westbrook, and they also let Alex Caruso walk in free agency in 2021.
Without guys who could defend and space the floor with 3s, such as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Caruso, the Lakers were a top-heavy mess that didn’t become competitive again until they dealt Westbrook ahead of the 2023 trade deadline.
The Lakers don’t need another star.
Of course, if they can get a generational superstar who’s still in his prime like Giannis Antetokounmpo, the aforementioned sentence goes out the window. If you can get Giannis, you get Giannis.
But that’s a big “if.”
And if they can’t get him, they shouldn’t go after another superstar.
Instead, if they can retain their Big Three of Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves and LeBron James, as Pelinka has made clear is his goal, they should focus on filling in the margins. (Reaves and James are both about to become unrestricted free agents.)
The Lakers already have proof of concept that the combination works.
After James embraced becoming the Lakers’ third offensive option, they went on a 16-2 run this spring. Doncic played at an MVP level. Reaves looked like an All-Star. And James was arguably the best “role player” in the league.
But any illusions that they were real title contenders was shattered in a 43-point loss to the Thunder on April 2, in which they lost Doncic (hamstring) and Reaves (oblique) to injuries.
The Lakers showed a lot of grit by getting past the Rockets in the first round of the playoffs without Doncic and with Reaves only playing in two games.
But the team’s real test came next against the Thunder.
Against the reigning champions, the Lakers fought like heck even though they were without Doncic, but their opponent was simply in another weight class.
In every contest besides Game 4, the Lakers unraveled in the second half under tired legs, while the Thunder seemingly weren’t even winded.
James, who tried to carry the team on his 41-year-old shoulders, didn’t mince words about what went wrong.
“… We fought and we played to the maximum ability of our team,” James said on the podcast, “Mind the Game,” that was released Thursday. “But ultimately, if we’re being completely honest, we were out-talented.”
The Thunder had 13 guys who were playing to their best ability. The Lakers struggled to have six.
The Lakers need guys like Caruso, who went undrafted and pours his heart into every possession. They need guys like Ajay Mitchell, who was drafted in the second round and proved he can be a laser under the brightest of lights. They need guys like Isaiah Hartenstein, who was also a second-round pick and has transformed into a pit bull in the paint.
The Lakers need to take a page out of the Thunder’s book.
Their focus needs to be on depth, not glitz.
When Thunder GM Sam Presti had a goldmine of picks during the franchise’s rebuild, he chose to focus on fortifying the edges of the roster instead of securing a superstar.
That philosophy has paid dividends.
That’s where the NBA is headed.
That’s how the Lakers could start nipping at the heels of the Thunder and Spurs.
This offseason, the Lakers need to find the diamonds in the rough. They need to add effort guys. They need to bolster their defense. They need more 3-point shooting. They need 10 guys they can trust to play playoff minutes.
They need to find the type of players they let slip through their fingers when they were hellbent on star chasing.
In a city that prioritizes star power, they need to embrace a completely different philosophy.
