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Three Gentlemen Sweeps: The LeBron James Era's Painful Legacy

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The Lakers' season ended with a gentleman's sweep by the Minnesota Timberwolves, prompting a critical examination of the LeBron James era and the future direction of the franchise.

• The LeBron James tenure since July 2018 has been largely disappointing despite the 2020 championship
• Three consecutive early playoff exits including "gentleman sweeps" suggest systemic issues
• Trading for Luka Doncic creates challenges in roster construction due to his defensive limitations
• Austin Reeves may be better suited as a trade asset than a core piece alongside Doncic
• The Lakers need to prioritize rim protection and perimeter defense to complement Luka
• JJ Redick's coaching decisions and lineup management need improvement
• Front office leadership under Jeanie Buss and Rob Pelinka should be questioned
• Future roster moves should focus on players who specifically enhance Doncic's strengths

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Speaker 1:

What's up everybody? It's your favorite show's favorite show. Get a Bucket. I'm your host, trayton, as usual. I hope you're all having a wonderful, wonderful day.

Speaker 1:

Today we're going to talk about my Lakers dropping the ball. No pun intended, but before we do that, please make sure to hit that like and subscribe button. Comment tell anyone who's anyone about the show, trying to get the ratings up a little bit. You know, just a little bit. But like I said, ladies and gentlemen, today we're going to talk about my Los Angeles Lakers and we were derailed. We were derailed a little bit. I'm not going to lie to you all. It was kind of piss poor. And here's my thing.

Speaker 1:

The reason why I'm upset the most is we've been gentleman swept the last three years and I can actually say this LeBron James tenure, this LeBron James experiment that my Lakers have had to endure since July 1st 2018, it's been a failure. I don't count the 2020 bubble year Notice. I said the year like the whole year. I don't even. I try not to acknowledge, but ironically, that's the year that we happened to win the championship Blown. If we wanted the prior year, I might've helped out the case, but right now we can't do nothing like retire LeBron James's jersey for Lakers. What has he done for us? Again, the championship for 2020, trash that year. Trash. People even tried to discredit the 2021 season. How can we do that and not discredit the 2020 season? And again, that's our only championship. And after that, like the first year, he got there right, missed the play-in playoff entirely, then lose. I'm sorry we won a championship. I'm sorry we. We did win that championship, that that championship. Then, after that first round exit in 2021, then 2022. I want to say we missed the playoffs all together. Was that right? And then 2023 sweep in the western conference finals. I'll give us sweep. We lost and then we got, gentlemen, swept in the first round 2024. Now 2025, gentlemen, swept.

Speaker 1:

Like I said, the lebron james era for the lakers trash. He has made all NBA selections, all-star appearances. What has he done for us? Because during this time, we thought of Nikola Jokic, luka Doncic, hell, even Anthony Edwards getting past LeBron James, just saying so again. The tenure for the Lakers led by LeBron James, the tenure for the Lakers led by LeBron James not that good. And keep in mind we also traded Anthony Davis, who was supposed to be our future, for now Luka Doncic. That's tough, that's going to be tough because people are saying we won the trade. I said when that trade happened it's not definitive that we won that trade. We've got to wait and see. So again, ladies and gentlemen, it's very tough to say we won that trade. We got to wait and see. So again, ladies and gentlemen, it's very tough to say we won that trade wholeheartedly.

Speaker 1:

The first six years of both Luka and AD's career, ad actually played more games than Luka. Luka, just in this playoff series, got injured. I have question marks on if Luka going to play past 2030. He already said he ain't want to play as long as Braun. So how long does Buddy really want to play? Does he want to play for us really long term? That's what we got to figure out. Anthony Davis might have actually stayed a little longer, and we at least get rim protection plus scoring. With Luka, we need defense across the board, because he don't do defense at all. And then we got to add rim protection. So guess what? Now we got to adjust the roster and with Luka at our point guard, braun no longer our future. We got a couple of things to consider Now when we're looking at this.

Speaker 1:

Ladies and gentlemen, look at this real quick. I just need y'all to repeat this. Y'all see this Lakers lose to the Wolves 103-96, and we get gentlemen swept. Like I said, ladies and gentlemen, that's kind of y'all peep. This right here, that gentlemen sweep really truly does hurt. And what this does for me, for real, for real, makes me think we need to trade this man right here. Wait, let me get right there. Right there, we're going to have the trade buddy right here, because Austin Reeves is going to be our what? Our? Point guard. No, that's Luka Doncic. Luka Doncic is the Lakers point guard. So now we're going to have what? Him be the off guard, all right.

Speaker 1:

Well, I already said, luka don't defend. So if Luka don't defend, we're going to need Austin Reeves to defend. But Austin Reeves is not a defender for me. Austin Reeves is a role player who is best probably off the bench. If I'm being honest, he can get me about 12 to 15 points. I can take that. He proved he can shoot a little decently. I can take that too. But when the defense is actually keying on him, that's when we're going to have trouble. And I hear y'all he scored 20 during the regular season. That's cute. Keep in mind when D'Lo did 18, led our team in three-point shooting and assist-turnover ratio. Everybody was going at D'Lo because he had one bad playoff or a bad playoff appearance against one team. Realistically, that same team beat us the year before too, like they've had our number, but we wanted to go at D'Lo.

Speaker 1:

So now we got to look at players like Austin Reed. I'm looking to trade Austin Reed, especially when Luka Doncic is our future, and apparently people are really high on a player like Austin Reed. Some people think this man is a star in the making. Cool, let's finesse people, then, and actually get somebody who can play well alongside Luka Doncic. Hell, maybe we can actually pair Luka with Donovan Mitchell. I think that could actually work out, because Donovan Mitchell does play a little bit of defense. I don't want him to be the primary defender, but I think that's a better option than Austin Reese, don't you? Again, we got to look at Luka. What's best for Luka? He needs a rim protector. He needs someone like a Kyrie Irving. I don't think Austin Reeves fits that bill. He needs people who can defend wings guards. I don't think Austin Reeves fits that bill.

Speaker 1:

When we were playing the Wolves, the Wolves were actually attacking Luka Doncic and Austin Reeves every chance they could get. So why not trade that person and bolster up the roster? Again, that's something we have to do. And if we can trade Braun too, why not? Because, again, luka's our future. So, as a ball-dominant player, is he really going to play well with Braun?

Speaker 1:

We had glimpses, but I do believe there are other players out there that we can try to finesse and pair with, and the only thing is we got to make sure that Braun likes to trade, because he does have his no-trade clause. Him and Bradley Beal are really hurting teams right now. But again, if we can find a competent trade for him, for Braun, maybe Braun's cool with it. Cavs, donovan Mitchell maybe that's a thing who knows, but we'll have to find out. But again, we do have to make some trades and I do expect Austin Reeves, rui Hachimura, dalton Gannett them players to get traded. Hell, dalton was already traded at one point in time, so it's not really a leap to say he could get traded too and he has good value. Don't get me wrong. All these players have decent value. Let's try to look for the future now.

Speaker 1:

But outside of this I mean, ladies and gentlemen, the supporting cast it won't really, it's looking a little lackluster Again when we bring this up. If I just point to the box scores, real quick, let me see, right there, did I go to the yeah, all right, so right here, can y'all still see this? Y'all see, right here, right Boom, this is Dash. You know what I'm saying? Like that's them, that's their production. This is us. That's not that. Like this, some do not plays.

Speaker 1:

I need to figure out JJ. How come we couldn't add some extra bodies on the court at this point in time? Hell, alex Lynn might be one of our tallest players. How come he couldn't get no love? Shaq Milton can actually score some. We could have used some extra scoring. Like, austin Reeves plays 41 minutes, 14 shots, 12 points. Dalton couldn't have tried to jack up a couple threes Like for real? Hell, I would have taken Bronny tried to shoot something. Like JJ, we got to try something, bro. We got to try something which I get it. It's your first year, right, kudos, you got 50 wins as a season.

Speaker 1:

But looking at the supporting cast, though, champ, like the supporting cast here, we do have some pieces. You could have tried to use a little bit more. I appreciate you scaling back on Jackson Hayes' PT. But, dog, next year we can't do the same stuff. I'm sorry. I want to see some improvements from JJ Redick now and again. With a new roster maybe we can do some new things.

Speaker 1:

But we got to focus on some key elements for my Lakers, like rim protection, like perimeter defense, like actually focusing on Luka and not LeBron James, because what we did with Austin Reeves and D'Angelo Russell was we wasted time trying to figure out which one should we keep, which one should we trade, which one should be the third option officially, which one should come off the bench, draw a line in the sand. Laker fan, a Laker organization please. Because right now I'm also saying to maybe we should get rid of Jeannie Buss, rob Palenka I've been saying we should. Maybe Jeannie should sell the team. I'm at the point where I'm like, officially, jeannie sell the team please. I don't even know if we know what we're doing now. This is wild.

Speaker 1:

Again, ladies and gentlemen, three gentlemen sweeps in a row. One of them was a sweep. My bad, it does sound better to say three gentlemen sweeps in a row, which is a crazy statement to make. In general, again, we weren't saying this. We were not saying this, but move this forward to a three. Now we saying it, just saying like it's crazy.

Speaker 1:

So, again, los Angeles Lakers, we have been derailed, and it's not just this season that's caused it. It's probably been since 2018. Coincidence, I don't know. But, ladies and gentlemen, maybe I'm just emotional right now because we just lost, but I want y'all to let me know too, though Am I off my rocker? Am I wild? Because I feel like I stated a lot of things that actually are factually true. But again, I know some people are going to call me a hater. The bronze stands, and that's fine. I know austin reeves stands are going to call me a hater, and that's cool. Hopefully, y'all realize now y'all were foolish, stupid, ignorant, because he's just a role player. Stop talking about him as much. He didn't perform well versus the Wolves is what it is. But hopefully the Lakers can make the right offseason moves, and I'll be talking about those more as the offseason happens.

Speaker 1:

But, ladies and gentlemen, y'all heard my gripes. Let me know what you all think. But that does conclude the end of the show. So, definitely, I appreciate you all for listening. I also appreciate the trolls that have been coming on for my Lakers. It has been entertaining. I will say that it has been entertaining. Hopefully we can cut those down just a little bit, but I get it, though we did lose in bad fashion. Oh, I'm not trying to have us get clowned too much, but it's deserved though it's deserved. I that must get clowned too much, but it's deserved though it's deserved. I will say that Shout out to Anthony Edwards and the Wolves for winning. We'll be following along with them. But, ladies and gentlemen, like I said, this does conclude the episode. So I greatly appreciate you all for listening. Thank you and definitely like subscribe. Comment to anyone who's anyone about the show. My name is Trey. I'm the host of Get a Bucket.