“Betrayed LeBron James and Anthony Davis”: Stephen A. Smith Calls Out the ‘Ugly’ State of the Lakers

The Lakers finally snapped their four-game losing streak against the Clippers in a thrilling 106-103 win. However, this win wasn’t enough to convince Stephen A. Smith about an impending turnaround for the LA side. The ESPN analyst strongly believes that the Lakers “stink” except for LeBron James and Anthony Davis. On his podcast The Stephen Smith Show, Smith seemed very displeased with how the supporting cast around LBJ and AD have been performing.

Like Shaquille O’Neal, the ESPN host also urged the likes of Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, and D’Angelo Russell to step up their game. Apart from that, the analyst lauded AD for being “elite” and hailed him as the favorite for the “Defensive Player of the Year” award. However, Stephen A. then dubbed James’ comments about his son Bronny James being good enough to play for the Lakers as a statement on the mediocrity of the whole team. All things point to an appalling lack of depth in the squad.

“They’ve[supporting cast] betrayed him[LeBron James] and Anthony Davis because they haven’t shown up,” said Stephen A. Smith

Ever since winning the In-Season Tournament Final against the Indiana Pacers, the Lakers have registered fewer than 30% wins in 14 games. During this period, their offense has ranked in the bottom ten and their defense has also struggled massively. Their starting rotations outside of Davis and James have fluctuated, and the team’s lack of depth is apparent.

Smith reminded the Lakers’ role players that they have an MVP-caliber player in AD and an all-time great in LeBron James on their team. Therefore, they should be ‘ashamed’ of themselves for not showing up to work and performing as per expectations.

Meanwhile, D’Angelo Russell has been inconsistent since December. After averaging around 17-18 points to start the season, he is averaging around 10 points for a month or so. On the flip side, there are murmurs that players are discordant about the way Head Coach Darvin Ham is using them on the floor. Anthony Davis and Austin Reaves both contradicted their coach when they claimed that they need to be injury-free to be successful.

Is Darvin Ham to blame for the Lakers’ woes?

The criticism around Ham’s handling of the Lakers has been growing with each day. Straight shooter Gilbert Arenas also put the coach under fire for handing a ton of minutes to Taurean Prince and Cam Reddish despite their poor showing. As per Arenas, since the Lakers HC was a deep bench wing player, he is playing vicariously through these Small Forwards.

“I don’t know what he’s[Ham] seeing in them[Reddish, Prince]. It’s like he’s trying to relive his career and wish someone put his sorry a** in the game”, argued Arenas during his show Gil’s Arena.

While Arenas has a gripe with Ham’s handling of rotations, Lamar Odom believes in changing the offensive scheme. As per Odom, the Lakers need to bring back the “Triangle offense”. The famed offensive structure brought the Lakers five championships under the tutelage of Phil Jackson and can easily work with a ball-handler like LeBron James and a cutter like AD.

With such suggestions piling up, the Lakers management will be keeping a keen eye on the trade deadline which is around five weeks away. The team needs a strong Wing player to take the load off LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The Hawks’ Wing De’Andre Hunter looks like a candidate to fix their gaps. The Trae Young-led team is tottering and will look to move Hunter’s four-year, $90 million contract. Will the Lakers give up D’Angelo Russell or Rui Hachimura to nab him?

They can also eye Hawks’ two-way guard DeJounte Murray but the asking price will be high. Meanwhile, Bojan Bogdanovic, who is currently shooting the lights out for the lowly Pistons, can massively address their long-range shooting. Whatever may be the case, considering their lack of cap space, the Lakers have a lot of number-crunching on their hands.