LOS ANGELES — Gap years are for young people who need a beat to find themselves, who want to avoid reality a little longer, and who have the luxury of time to do it.
The Lakers have the luxury of rostering Luka Doncic, a 26-year-old superstar in his prime. They’ve got the luxury of a new ownership group for whom title contention has been non-negotiable for the baseball team next door. The Lakers also have the luxury of a devoted, demanding and easily dissatisfied fan base.
Gap years might favor some fortunate folks and less-enterprising teams; gap years do not favor the Lakers.
Team president Rob Pelinka knows this, of course. He’s said so plenty often, including at the news conference following Doncic’s contract extension in August: “Every year we’re on an infinite cycle to try to improve this team and win championships … we’re in ‘win-championship-now’ mode always.”
That’s important, because this isn’t Phoenix or Minnesota or Intuit Dome, where good seasons and fun stories can carry the day. The Lakers’ burden is that just about every season, fair or not, it’s championship or bust.
This team, with the 17 banners hanging above its home court, it made the playoffs each of the past three seasons – and won just two of its past 14 postseason games. It entered the playoffs last season as the third seed, but all that anyone around here remembers, really, is that they got bounced by the Timberwolves in the first round. That is to say: The Lakers failed.
And, to their credit, they responded by improving in the margins. They added Deandre Ayton’s 7-foot frame to contend with the 7-foot-1 Rudy Goberts of the world. They picked up forward Jake LaRavia, the 24-year-old who is inconsistent but capable of compelling performances like his 21-point, nine-rebound effort in Friday’s 128-121 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies. They added guard Marcus Smart, who is a heavily taxed 31, but whose tenacity this team very much needs.
They did enough to build a good team that isn’t good enough.
Entering play against Memphis (again) on Sunday, they’re 21-11 and the fifth seed in the Western Conference – with a negative points differential of minus-6.
They’ve shown grit in high-leverage, late-game situations – 11-0 in those tight contests. But if an opponent can land a few blows before those official clutch minutes, the Lakers have too often quit when the going got hard. They’ve been taking their gap year in games, losing big when they lose, with those 11 defeats coming by an average of 18.9 points.
They’re a conundrum in an ill-advised wraparound pass. A ping-pong match between good vibes and apathy. A regular-season success story bound to bump its head on its own playoff ceiling.
And the smart people following the plot are pointing that out. They’re proclaiming this current exercise futile, just the laurel-resting Lakers minding the gap until they can go fishing a season from now for another super-duper-star like Giannis Antetokounmpo to pair with Doncic.
So, like, why do today what you can put off to tomorrow? Is that how this song goes? Is that what we’re defining as a “responsible” process these days?
I’m asking facetiously: Why crack any eggs now when you can put them all in the same basket – without knowing, of course, whether you’ll even be able to catch the big fish, or even how another No. 1 would pair with your current No. 1?
Sure, why not wait until your current 26-year-old super-duper star is older, lamenting the fact that a valuable portion of his prime has been squandered?
And waiting, by the way, until your aged super-duper star LeBron James is, well, who’s to say where he is next season? And waiting also until your super-duper bargain of a star Austin Reaves is earning what he’s worth and eating up $40-some million of your salary cap … or, golly, someone else’s?
Waiting until Oklahoma City and San Antonio, and Detroit and Houston, and any of the league’s athletic, aggressive upstarts are even better?
No, let’s not do that. No stalling, no procrastinating. No hoping, no coping, no promises of a better future when nothing in sports is guaranteed – including, one would think, Pelinka’s job under new ownership.
There ought to be bidding, not biding.
And there are limits, surely, to the moves the Lakers can make in-season. They have only one first-round draft pick and another second-rounder to offer, and they’ve got only a few imminently tradeable players, in Rui Hachimura, Gabe Vincent, Maxi Kleber.
But if any of those assets can net the Lakers defenders, shooters or high-flyers to put around Doncic now?
Do it. Do those deals. Find a way to improve this imperfect roster enough to actually give the proven playoff risers on it an actual puncher’s chance.
Leave gap years to the aimless and the carefree, and be serious. Close the gap this year.