James Worthy ties a Luka Doncic problem to the rescinded trade made by the Los Angeles Lakers.
The 2024-25 NBA season will forever be remembered by the Los Angeles Lakers as they traded for Luka Doncic in a shocking move with the Dallas Mavericks.
As far as the regular season was concerned, the Lakers improved vastly. After all, they clinched the No. 3 seed in the loaded Western Conference.
However, come playoff time, the Lakers were eliminated in just five games by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round.
Despite being the third-best regular season team in the West, the Purple and Gold entered the 2025 NBA Playoffs with an obvious flaw at the center position.
Many believe the organization almost solved that flaw when they traded for the Charlotte Hornets’ Mark Williams. However, the trade was rescinded before Williams could even play a single game for the team.
Franchise legend James Worthy recently spoke about the failed Williams trade and its impact on the team.
“It was sad and disappointing, and in the back of my mind, when we did not get Mark Williams in that trade, I knew we can be successful throughout the regular season,” Worthy said.
He also gave the Cleveland Cavaliers’ example to further bolster his point.
“But as you know, and you’ve seen, when you get with a team for seven games, what happened in Cleveland, a lot of teams that are favorite doesn’t always happen,” Worthy added.
Doncic had a rollercoaster of a regular season as he was essentially backstabbed by the Mavericks after showing nothing but loyalty to the franchise.
As good as Doncic is, Worthy believes that come playoff time, the 5x NBA All-Star wasn’t still on the same page as the rest of the roster.
“I still don’t think the synergy was complete with Luka. There were a lot of things that were absent, and so it was just tough to see that they couldn’t advance after making it to the third seed,” Worthy continued.
“But that’s easy to do in the regular season. Playoffs is where it is,” he concluded.
For what it’s worth, the long offseason will allow Doncic and the rest of the Lakers to finally complete their synergy.
If general manager Rob Pelinka can get a talented center on the roster, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Purple and Gold go all the way and bring championship No. 18 to the Crypto.com Arena.
