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The Los Angeles Lakers’ underwhelming roster once again has players around the league saying LeBron James needs help.
“It’s just too much on Bron right now,” one player told ESPN’sΒ Ramona Shelburne. “Everyone is just going to pack the paint and try to frustrate him because they need a lot. Speed. Playmaking. Shooting.”
The Lakers are 20-21 heading into Wednesday night’s game against the Dallas Mavericks and have looked like a team in desperate need of a retooling all season. Coach Darvin Ham has shuffled through several different starting lineups, with James, Anthony Davis and Taurean Prince being the only mainstays.
Ham went back to his Opening Night lineup, featuring James, Davis, Prince, D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves, ahead of Monday’s win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Lakers held Oklahoma City to 41.7 percent from the floor, leading Ham to indicate that the starting five is here to stay.
“Just wanted to put as much skill and shot-making on the floor around our two captains,” HamΒ told reporters. “And those five, they’ve been pretty much our most consistent guys throughout the season thus far. So just put them together.
“For the foreseeable future, that’s going to be our lineup, barring any type of injury.”
The Lakers were active at last year’s trade deadline, acquiring Russell, Rui Hachimura and Jarred Vanderbilt to revamp their rotation. The midseason roster shuffle wound up paying dividends, with the Lakers reaching the Western Conference Finals, but it has not translated into long-term success in the regular season.
The Lakers have been linked to Atlanta Hawks guard Dejounte Murray and Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine ahead of this deadline, and it might take a blockbuster to turn things around for the second straight season.
As it stands, James will be in a familiar place of having to shoulder the majority of the load.
