Did this team fail to build with Anthony Davis?

Davis is a force on both ends

I know the Lakers made trades, but his dominance is why they have legit title hopes

Did this organization fail to build a proper roster around him?

No?

Why not?

Dell Demps.

Davis was not the problem while he was here. Other than being injured his play lived up to expectations. Nobody should be surprised to see him play well because he played well while he was here.

These Lakers are built around LeBron not AD, he's a very good player but I have my doubts regarding his ability to lead a championship contender without a top 10 player. I guess we'll see once Bron retire.

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Originally Posted by Blattman

These Lakers are built around LeBron not AD, he's a very good player but I have my doubts regarding his ability to lead a championship contender without a top 10 player. I guess we'll see once Bron retire.

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Thats a fair point. AD's skill is unassailable but he has never shown the fire of a true leader. Thats probably why the fit with Lebron works better than on a team where his supposed to be that guy.

Yep. Anthony Davis is a great #2 or 3. He's an awful #1.

Somebody needs to go for AD knees

Davis going to another finals? Lol

Another interesting point is if the current lakers roster would succeed in a small market. They're chasing fouls and I'm pretty sure if they were even in mid-market team the refs would swallow their whistles.

No I think they overall did fine, but mostly just ran into a lot of bad luck. Lost a year and a half with Jrue because the Sixers didn't disclose his injury. Tyreke Evans then had his problems when Jrue finally came back 100%. Bigger issue with Tyreke's trade IMO was giving away Robin Lopez, who was on a great contract (like $5m a year) because they were trying to slide AD over into Center ASAP because of Ryan Anderson. Then they had to go out and get Omer Asik because that didn't work out. And them Omer Asik ended up getting Crohn's Disease.

Then they filled that void by getting Cousins and right when they started to look like everything was coming together, Cousins tears his Achilles. They did rip off 10 wins in a row after that and also swept Portland in the playoffs, but their ceiling was much lower. Cousins was putting up 40/20/10 games.

Main issue I had with Demps was that when he had Monty Williams as head coach, he built the roster to run when Monty liked to slow things down. Then he fired Monty and brought in Gentry, who liked to run, but then brought in players who preferred to play at a slower pace.

It was a time in the NBA where players had more pull getting other players to join teams than GMs or coaches did. All indications are that AD didn't try to get players here and pretty much every other super star was overtly calling players to join them. As others have stated, the dude just isn't a leader. He's a follower.

The only thing they failed to do when AD was here was find that dynamic wing. They finally got Mirotic, who was a perfect fit, but then AD decided he wanted out in year 2 with him.

The rest was AD being "street clothes" too often.

The Pels FO totally failed to build a squad around AD. Just look back at the rosters, they weren't good enough to go past the first round in most years.

They didn't go get dependable shooters to space the floor and there was no balance in the squad. Much like the roster of today.

They also drafted a bunch of lemons, including someone named Walt Lemon Jr. You can not make up that kind of irony, lol. :p

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Originally Posted by luckyman

The only thing they failed to do when AD was here was find that dynamic wing. They finally got Mirotic, who was a perfect fit, but then AD decided he wanted out in year 2 with him.

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Wasn't Mirotic a PF? Since AD was also playing at PF and he didn't want to play Center for the whole regular season, it is understandable that AD may not have thought it a perfect fit.

Mirotic would have been an excellent super-sub though.

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Originally Posted by LAL1947

Wasn't Mirotic a PF? Since AD was also playing at PF and he didn't want to play Center for the whole regular season, it is understandable that AD may not have thought it a perfect fit.

Mirotic would have been an excellent super-sub though.

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It's not understandable. They went on that hot streak and then swept Portland in the 1st round that year.

They did initially have Mirotic coming off the bench while Okafor started at center, but made the change around playoff time to start Mirotic and have AD at "center".

Lakers did the same thing for their bubble run.

The following year they had Mirotic, Jrue Holiday, and Julius Randle around AD.

No excuses. They built around him.