The off-season is in full swing as Lakers players conducted their first round of exit interviews yesterday in El Segundo. Most players discussed the team’s rash of injuries and how the 2012-13 season was by far the craziest season of their careers.
—–Check out the Lakers Nation store to get your LN gear and show off your Lakers pride!——
With acquisitions of Steve Nash and Dwight Howard, most believed a date with the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals was inevitable, but the Lakers’ season is defined by injury and coaching change.
We asked Lakers Nation to grade the season as a whole and not surprisingly, everyone wasn’t happy:
In our poll, 38 percent percent believed the season was a failure and 22 percent voted that it was incomplete. For a team that lost all of their guard depth before or during the series to the Spurs, it’s hard to properly grade the team.
However, the regular season was turbulent as Dwight Howard was criticized on a nightly basis for his lack of offense efficiency and inability to hit free throws down the stretch. Nash looked like a shell of his former MVP-like self as he battled injuries the entire season.
Pau Gasol, Blake and Jordan Hill all missed over 30 games due to various injuries as the Lakers lack of depth was tested on a nightly basis. For a team with four future hall of famers, they would agree that the season was a failure, but as Nash said at his exit interview, “I feel like we never got started.”
While every season in Lakerland that doesn’t end in a parade down Figueroa is considered a failure, it’s easy to see why Lakers Nation is so disappointed in the 2012-13 season.