The Los Angeles Lakers have done an admirable job reassembling a roster resembling that of a championship contender. There is no doubt that task was made harder than it should have been due to the front office's own shortcomings.
Zach Kram of ESPN recently shined a spotlight on the ugly side of life in the NBA, pointing out the biggest roster mistakes since 2020 for all 30 NBA franchise. The Lakers slotted towards the middle, in terms of the gravity of their blunder.
Kram argued the Lakers' missteps would be categorized in the 'miscellaneous midtier mistakes.' The point of focus? That would be Los Angeles losing 3-and-D players from their 2020 championship team.
The ESPN writer wrote, "They forgot the old maxim 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' and exchanged 3-and-D wings for ball handlers in their quest to win again. ... The overall effects ... are clear: The Lakers won four playoff series in 2020, but they've won just two total playoff series in the five seasons since."
Lakers still struggling to fix their mistakes in 2025
3-and-D role players helped LeBron James and Anthony Davis win a championship in 2020. Davis is gone now, but that mold of supporting cast would also be perfect for the current duo of James and Luka Doncic.
Doncic is a master of undressing NBA defenses. The Slovenian superstar loves catching them with their pants down by finding the wide-open shooter that results from his impressive offensive attack.
The Lakers took 40.0 attempts per game from beyond the arc following the All-Star break. That accounted for 46.9 percent of their total shots taken.
They shot a respectable 37.6 percent from distance, but Doncic was the one accounting for a big part of that. The Lakers superstar connected on 38.6 percent of his 9.8 attempts over that span.
Those numbers fell off in the NBA Playoffs. The Lakers ranked 9th, out of the 16 teams in the postseason, shooting 35.1 percent from 3-point.
Alex Caruso is finally getting his championship parade and made sure his #Lakers ring was along for the ride. 😮💨🫡
(via @NBA) pic.twitter.com/jw071GgcGF
— Lakers Nation (@LakersNation) June 24, 2025
It is times like those when not having an Alex Caruso or a Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is really felt. This is especially true when factoring in the other end of the court as well.
The Lakers are still hunting for improvements on defense. Adding Marcus Smart certainly helped, but the need for more still exists. The problem with someone like Smart, too, is the added variance of what the former Defensive Player of the Year brings offensively.
There were a handful of players who could reliably do both on the Lakers. Caruso, Caldwell-Pope, and Danny Green were all options who delivered the desirables offensively and defensively. Those feeling bold enough may even include Kyle Kuzma in that group.
The Lakers let all of that go. A group of players built in a mold that never goes out of style were kicked to the curb. There have certainly been worse blunders since 2020 across the league. However, struggling to fill that void has been notable for Los Angeles ever since.