It was all going so well for the LA Lakers, or at least much better.
Recovering from a horror 2-10 start to the season where some were calling them a lottery team, the Lakers completely flipped the script to get to 10-12 before starting a road trip in early December.
The shock turnaround in their season was largely because of one man – Anthony Davis.
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Davis recaptured some of his absolute previous best form from his days with the New Orleans Pelicans as the form player of the entire NBA – averaging 27.4 points, 12.1 rebounds, 2.1 blocks and 1.3 blocks to surge into MVP calculations.
Beyond the numbers, he looked phenomenal again – diving all around the floor for blocks and defensive plays and attacking the rim relentlessly.
There was a league-wide feeling of ‘Davis is back’ after he’d been in decline since moving to the Lakers in 2019 despite helping lead them to the 2020 championship.
Heck, some reports even suggested he could be available for trade during the team’s early-season struggles.
But his epic rush of form thwarted any doubts on whether he was still a top-line superstar, finally living up to the level LA had hoped for when it traded for him to eventually take over the mantle from LeBron James as this team’s alpha – also while Davis finally embraced playing at the centre.
Then it happened again – Davis got injured.
The big man got struck down last week with an ankle issue as initial reports stated he’d be out for multiple weeks with a foot injury.
But ESPN’s Brian Windhorst revealed this week the “concerning” injury could be more serious and that Davis would be out for an “extended period.”
And just like that, alarm bells are going off for Lakers fans, of course, given the oft-injured Davis’ injury history.
“It’s going to be like a month? Yeah OK, we’ll see. Because with feet especially, it always seems like it’s six weeks, eight weeks, for bigs (especially),” The Ringer’s Bill Simmons said on The Bill Simmons Podcast.
“Nobody is getting rushed back with a weird foot situation, and it doesn’t seem like it’s a sprained foot, it seems like it’s worse.
“I just think you have to be really careful with these big, a little bit injury-prone guys. I already feel like they were pushing the RPMs to like seven.
“I just have serious questions about Davis being able to stay healthy for eight to nine months a year.
“The Lakers relied on him to get back in the race when he went on that run, (but) he couldn’t sustain it – he got hurt, he broke down. Some guys just aren’t durable.”
The Lakers are now precariously placed – sitting 13th in the West with a 13-18 record – three and a half games behind the eight seed with a third of the season gone.
Yes, playoffs are within reach, and they salvaged a campaign that once seemed like a complete write off to even emerge in trade rumours as potential buyers ahead of the deadline.
However Davis was central to everything.
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There remains question marks over their roster that is still devoid of shooting, star power and overall talent, with Davis’ brilliant form helping mask some of those voids.
And so is it worth them exploring trades to push further up the standings given it’d likely require them mortgaging their future?
Of course, the Lakers’ first rounder is already tied to the New Orleans Pelicans, who’d be rubbing their hands together after the Davis injury, with the pick ironically changing hands after the 2019 blockbuster trade for the star big. That in itself is enough of a blow.
The Lakers’ other trade chips are their 2027 and 2029 first-round picks. At least one, if not both, would almost certainly need to be moved for them to make any meaningful roster upgrades.
Russell Westbrook, who’s found new life in a sixth-man role to potentially boost his trade value, and his $47 million expiring deal is another movable piece.
But again, a Westbrook trade would likely involve them moving at least one of their future first rounders, and reports state he’s unlikely to be dealt.
Plus, even in a best-case scenario where the Lakers potentially add a Bojan Bogdanovic type or even a DeMar DeRozan, it likely doesn’t raise their ceiling enough to compete for a championship.
And that’s not factoring in the unknown of what version of Davis returns – whenever that is – and how long it takes him to ramp up.
“If he’s gone for six to nine weeks, you’re (currently) 13-17 anyway, and LeBron, who’s in year 20 and has basically been missing 25-30 games the last couple of years, is the hub of the team now,” Simmons added.
“The moment he (James) gets hurt, your season is over. So why am I giving away my entire future to hold the fort so that I can get Anthony Davis coming off a semi-major injury and old LeBron?
“And where am I going anyway? Am I as good as the top seven teams in the league with that nucleus?
“If I was a consultant of the Lakers, I would be like: ‘The New Orleans pick is a sub cost. The Pelicans pick is gone, we’re not getting it back. We’re not going to win the title with the team we have. Now we’re going to ruin the end of the 2020s? For what? Are we going to be better than Milwaukee?’”
Putting too much of a workload on James’ body is a valid concern – and a massive ask of a 38-year old.
Yes, we’re talking about arguably the greatest player of all time, but he’s in his twilight days and has very much gotten through recent seasons by managing his body and sitting a stack of games when he hasn’t been actually injured.
Over the last four seasons, James has played 56 games (of a possible 82 games), 45 (72), 67 (71) and 55 (82).
This isn’t the same James that can single-handedly steamroll through teams and carry his own to a top four seed.
Plus the acquisition of Davis, and Westbrook, to a lesser degree, was as much about easing James’ load as anything and allow him to rest when he could.
But then making no moves and effectively waving the white flag on this season is also an abomination for a team built to win now that still has one of the league’s all-time legends playing at a high level.
Even before Davis’ injury, this was far from an ideal situation.
“The Lakers are, by every imaginable definition, tragically squandering the last, best years of one of the greatest players in NBA history,” Sports Illustrated’s Howard Beck wrote.
As much as James isn’t the player he once was, he’s still as valuable as any star on his best nights and will likely make another All-Star game this season.
With how durable James has been across his career while showing no signs of slowing down as a bona fide superstar, it’d be silly to discount what he could produce with more talent around him.
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This adds some weight to the idea of potentially getting more help prior to the trade deadline, even if it means trading draft picks.
James is contracted in LA for two more seasons, and beyond that, the franchise’s future is uncertain despite its ability to attract big-name stars.
The future however shouldn’t be a major priority so long as James is still around, and it’s hard to envision the Lakers going into full tank mode – especially considering their first rounder belongs to New Orleans.
Put it all together and there’s no obvious answers for the Lakers right now, with Davis’ injury adding another layer of complexity to an already unpredictable season for the team even when it was healthy.
The Lakers can only take things day by day and let their record on the court dictate their direction, although the current trajectory hasn’t been good, dropping six of their last nine games.
This famous franchise will at some stage need to take a more obvious pathway and hope there isn’t much collateral damage along the way.