As LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers lick their wounds from another first round playoff exit, Skip Bayless knows how to make them a championship contender.
They might have offensive firepower with LeBron and Luka Dončić. But after watching the Lakers get bounced by the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games, it’s unanimous. The Lakers need bigs and the Lakers need defense. According to Skip Bayless, the Lakers need Anthony Davis.
“I had a revelation, I had a eureka moment in my man cave as I watched the clock tick down on 103-96,” Bayless said on his podcast. “I thought, ‘You know what the Lakers should do? They should trade for Anthony Davis. They should offer Luka Dončić for Anthony Davis. Maybe they can offer Luka and Maxi Kleber…that’s just what the Lakers need. They need to trade for Anthony Davis.’ Because if they had had Anthony Davis, they would have won this series.”
Three months ago, much of NBA media was ready to declare the Lakers championship contenders after seemingly fleecing Nico Harrison and the Dallas Mavericks by acquiring Dončić for a trade package centered around Davis. Three months later, the trade for Dončić amounted to just one playoff win for the Lakers.
Bayless, perhaps predictably, was one of the few NBA fans and media members who went against the grain and defended Harrison’s decision to give the Lakers a 26-year-old superstar. And after watching Dončić’s shortcomings shine in the Lakers’ brief trip to the playoffs, Bayless relished the opportunity to gloat.
“I said it,” Bayless continued. “This was not the worst trade in the history of basketball. Unless you want to flip it around and say it was a bad trade for the Lakers. Did you watch what happened in the last three games to Luka Dončić on defense? The Timberwolves were laughing at him. They were hunting him. They were abusing him. They were making him look like a clown on defense because he is clownish on defense.”
Dončić is 26 and remains a historically great offensive player. Clearly, however, he isn’t without shortcomings on defense. Trading Dončić wasn’t Harrison’s biggest downfall. Trading Dončić without shopping him to get best value was Harrison’s biggest downfall.
The Lakers have time to prove they won the trade, while the clock is ticking on Dallas, with Davis being a 32-year-old injury-prone center. But on this day, Harrison and Harrison’s defenders have reason to feel somewhat vindicated by the Lakers’ playoff failures.