Lakers Need To Find Way To Start Over, As Opposed To Spinning Wheels With LeBron, Davis

Does LeBron James really want his legacy tainted by mediocrity? Does Anthony Davis want to spend the rest of his prime as an underachiever, stuck in a Lakers cycle of frustration?

As LA continues to struggle, the clock is ticking toward Dec. 15, the date when trade restrictions on players like LeBron — who signed a new contract this summer — officially lift.

So as Bill Plaschke of the LA Times wrote, it’s time to ask the tough question. Namely, shouldn’t LeBron and Davis just walk away?

If LeBron decides to waive his no-trade clause, the Lakers could ship him to a contender where he could make one last run at a championship. And if Davis is open to a trade, the Lakers could send him somewhere that gives him a real shot at a title before his body betrays him.

Either way, LA would get a haul of assets to jumpstart a rebuild, and let’s face it — anything is better than what we’re seeing from them now, as Plaschke noted.

The Lakers are an absolute mess. Their bench got outscored by 48 points in Atlanta. Their defense got shredded by the Miami Heat in a 134-point disaster. And the usual playoff contender — Denver — came into town and handed them another embarrassing loss. This is going nowhere fast. Again.

Robert Horry, a five-time champion, went off on them after the Miami game, saying the Lakers were playing like they were trying to get their coach fired. That’s not a good sign.

Then, they blew another game in Atlanta, with Trae Young hitting a game-winning three because no one bothered to cover him. Afterward, even JJ Redick was at a loss for words.

This team has LeBron,yes, but at 39, he’s looking every bit his age. The offense is patchy, the defense nonexistent, and he’s ranked 485th in plus-minus.

Davis? When he’s on, he’s a top-tier big man. When he’s off — which is becoming more frequent — he’s a ghost. He doesn’t play with the urgency of an MVP candidate, and he’s never fully embraced his role as the Lakers’ dominant force.

Austin Reaves and rookie Dalton Knecht are solid, but they’re not championship-level players, at least not at the moment. So here we are: a roster with some big names and little substance. Sure, you could trade away D’Angelo Russell or Reaves, but that’s not fixing anything. It’s just shuffling deck chairs.

GM Rob Pelinka will likely be on the hot seat, but what’s he really working with? Another year of LeBron and Davis not carrying their weight? It’s time for the Lakers to face facts.

The best way forward is not by patching this roster up with trades that aren’t going to get them any closer to a title. It’s time for a clean break.

LeBron has done it all in LA. A championship, breaking the scoring record, sharing the court with his son. He’s accomplished everything he set out to do here. So why stay and drag out the inevitable? He could join a contender, be the missing piece they need for one final run, and create his own Hollywood ending somewhere else, as Plaschke wrote.

As for Davis, he still has time to reach his potential. But it’s clear LA isn’t the place to do it. No matter what happens with LeBron, the Lakers aren’t building a contender around him.

Davis could be the star of his own team, with a real chance at another ring. Or, he could keep treading water in LA and let his prime slip away.

The Lakers need a change. And honestly, it might be for the best if LeBron and Davis hand the keys to the next generation.

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