It did not take long for fans across the NBA community to chime in about the current construction of the Lakers’ roster following Los Angeles’s 123–109 loss to the Warriors on Tuesday to kick off the 2022-23 NBA season.
The Lakers plan to contend for an NBA title this season under first-year head coach Darvin Ham. But in L.A.’s aspiration to compete for a championship, it will likely require alterations to its current roster.
Ahead of Wednesday’s slate of NBA games, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski appeared on NBA Countdown and reported that the Lakers’ plan is to wait until after the Thanksgiving holiday to make a dive into the trade market for additional talent on the team. While that results to about 20 games into the season, Wojnarowski also shared that it would allow the franchise to see what teams might “start to unload players” to join the sweepstakes for French star Victor Wembanyama.
In the news conference after the loss, Lakers star LeBron James did not shy away from stating that the team is in need of more shooting and scoring.
“Being completely honest, we’re not a team that constructed of great shooting,” James said. “That’s just the truth of the matter. It’s not like we’re sitting here with a lot of lasers on our team.”
While James provided his analysis after one game into the new season, the 18-time All-Star and company will have to wait until the 20-game threshold to see what “might really be available to help improve” the team, per Wojnarowski.
Los Angeles was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in 2020-21 and missed the postseason in 2021-22 after posting a 33–49 record.
The Lakers (0-1) will host the Clippers on Thursday night at 10 p.m. ET.
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