The Lakers Are Currently A Disaster Which Means It's The Perfect Time For Jeanie Buss To Promote Her Book

Allen J. Schaben. Getty Images.

The Lakers currently find themselves at a bit of a crossroads. At just 22-18, they sit in the 6 spot in the West, but just 0.5 games from being back in the Play In, and just 2 games from being in the Lottery. They're 5-5 over their last 10 and 11-17 against teams .500 or better.

Not only that, you also already have LeBron starting to get a little restless, seeing as how trade season is right around the corner as he starts to go with his typical mid-January blueprint of talking about how terrible the roster is despite ya know, not accepting any responsibility for why that might be the case

As a blueblood lifelong Lakers hater, this all brings me a great amount of joy.  The same way I'm sure Lakers fans enjoy the Celts being inconsistent assholes for the last month and dropping games they have no business dropping, that's how things are going to go for the rest of time, each side enjoys the other's downfall.

Which is why randomly seeing this tweet from Lakers owner Jeanie Buss at a time when her franchise is a complete shitshow was very, very funny

(screenshot in the event she deletes it)

Listen, promotion is promotion I guess. What better way to distract everyone from the product on the court than to…..push your book? Surely that will not only turn around the Lakers season, but also rally the fanbase. That's an owner who has her eye on the prize and is focused on what is truly important. 

It sort of made me think that this may have just been a case of someone not truly understanding how to use Twitter. Remember when Paul Pierce was fighting for his life trying to figure out how to tweet a Rocket emoji during the DeAndre Jordan free agency saga? What an all time moment in NBA Twitter history

So maybe something like that is what was at play here. Technology can be a real motherfucker to the older generation. I'm on the phone twice a week walking my parents through the process of watching YouTubeTV or Netflix on the smart TV I gave them. A minimum 35-minute call to explain what an app is or how there is no cable cord for a TV that connects to the internet. We've all been there. 

But you also have to put into context the timing of this tweet from Jeanie Buss. This coming the same day Lakers fans are learning that their front office isn't really planning on doing anything substantial to fix their mostly dogshit roster

“The sense around the league, when talking to rival scouts and front-office personnel, is that standing pat or making a half-measure trade (likely one or two second-round picks) is more likely than the Lakers going all-in and trading both of their future first-round picks that can be moved. That’s dependent, of course, on the available players, asking prices and the team’s performance through the deadline.”

Another year and another dance of "will LeBron bully them into doing something stupid" at the trade deadline. Fans want big names and big stars, but those come at a price. Knowing the Lakers are not operating from a position of leverage, yesterday's price on someone is not today's price. They now have to balance keeping LeBron happy and figuring out a way to not completely ruin their future for once LeBron either leaves or retires. 

So just add it all up. Not only is the team currently playing awful basketball and on the verge of being in the Lottery, but their front office is already saying that they don't plan to do anything substantial at the deadline, and then on top of that the owner is tweeting out promos for her book. 

Meanwhile, LeBron isn't getting any younger, AD continues to have nagging injuries, the entire roster can't shoot, Dalton Knecht has disappeared, they just got smashed by the Clippers (again), does this have the look and feel of an organization that has any idea what they're doing? Trying to survive off your history and the idea of "Lakers Exceptionalism" doesn't exactly play in 2024. You actually have to ya know, compete. Especially when the West is getting tougher by the season. That requires everyone from the owner to the front office to the players to be locked in on the journey up the mountain with one goal in mind. A title.

Something tells me that's not #1 on Jeanie Buss' priority list, which while that makes me elated, probably isn't the best move for that franchise's future.