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The Lakers were supposed to be a playoff team. Heck, they were supposed to be one of the Warriors' main competitors for the NBA title.
And yet, as Golden State face Los Angeles for the last time of the season on Thursday night, it's clear things did not go as planned for the Lakers.
The warriors did their part. The Lakers, meanwhile, will extend their longest playoff drought in franchise history.
How did the Lakers come here? How did you get to that? These are questions that ESPN's Dave McMenamin attempted to answer at the end of last month, when it became apparent that the first season of the Lakers with LeBron James had been a mess.
McMenamin listed several reasons for the failure of the Lakers' rise, including a poor list composition, a malfunction of the reception and locker room and a multitude of unfortunate injuries. But McMenamin goes back to a particular event that was the initial catalyst for the Lakers' failures this season, namely a player who will not play in Thursday's game in Los Angeles: Paul George.
It was thought that George, a native of southern California, was a logical star to pair with James in purple and gold. But when George signed a new contract with the Thunder of Oklahoma City last summer, he set in motion the process of improving the current state of the Lakers.
According to McMenamin, George was dismissed from the Lakers in part because of the influence of a former teammate (and the current Sacramento King).
"George has never given the Lakers an opportunity to shoot," McMenamin remembers. "But he had a wealth of information about the inner workings of the Lakers without hearing a word from Magic Johnson.For example, George played in Oklahoma City with Corey Brewer in the second half of the 2017 season. -18, after LA gave up Brewer last February, he leaked his experience of the Lakers to George, sources said.
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It is unlikely that George has decided to stay in Oklahoma City, but this is by no means with the Lakers. The Thunder are heading to the playoffs and the Lakers, well, are not.
How different would the current NBA landscape have been if George joined James in Los Angeles? Maybe thanks to Brewer, we'll never know.
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