The Lakers have been underperforming for the second straight season. They are currently the 13th seed in the Western Conference with a 14-20 record and are battling for a place in the playoffs. Usually, such teams don’t have one All-Star, let alone two. But the Lakers are different than most teams.
The Lakers are very top heavy, led by superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis. In perfect health, they were actually playing pretty good basketball.
But still, with star power all over the place, the folks at Bleacher Report made some major predictions about the Lakers’ superstars. , one of which was named a starter.
No one was among the expected five starters in the Western Conference except Anthony Davis, who was absent. Here’s what they had to say:
“Davis has done more than enough in the 25 games he’s played to justify an All-Star Game start.
“The top five spots in catchall metrics such as Estimated Plus/Minus and RAPTOR in FiveThirtyEight are in line with legitimate MVP considerations that Davis’ pre-injury play demanded. Our dominance in production and vision testing was definitely worthy of an All-Star.”
Prior to the injury, Davis was averaging 27.4 points, 12.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 2.1 blocks and 1.3 steals per game. He looked like one of the dominant players on both ends of the floor and the true he was playing like an MVP and Defensive Player of the Year contender.
So despite missing an indefinite amount of time, Bleacher Report put him in the starting five of the All-Stars.
As for the Reserve, I think you can guess who the guy was. Yes, it was LeBron James, soon to be 38. Here are some of what they said:
“There will come a day when James will lose his All-Star status and have to make a name for himself. But we’re not there yet.”
LeBron may not be as perfect as past seasons, but he’s averaging 27.8 points, 8.1 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game. He’s single-handedly trying to keep the Lakers alive without his AD, and will likely only get better numbers with AD aside for the foreseeable future. LeBron will be an All-Star in his February game he will be 100%. The question is, is it as a starter or as a reserve?