Roughly 30 games into the season, the Los Angeles Lakers started to look like they were figuring things out after a slow start. Then, their season was derailed by injuries — most notably the injury All-Star forward LeBron James suffered against the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day.
Since then, the Lakers have struggled to even resemble a playoff-caliber team, going 17-30 since Dec. 25 while posting the seventh-worst net rating in the NBA. Meanwhile, the injuries haven’t stop piling up, as Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball were officially shut down in early March, followed by Josh Hart a few weeks later.