NBA Daily: The Bittersweet State of the Celtics and Lakers

When was the last time the Celtics and the Lakers’ offseason plans overlapped each other? Actually, on second thought, has there ever been a time when the plans of the two most storied franchises in the NBA coincided with the other?

Both Boston and Los Angeles are expected to be thrown into a bidding war for Anthony Davis once summer rolls around. Boston wants Davis because acquiring him would probably give Kyrie Irving, who seems to have eased off his preseason promise of re-signing with the Celtics, enough incentive to stay. Los Angeles wants Davis because it will give a LeBron a superstar partner that should make the final years of his prime meaningful in Hollywood.

Everything both teams have planned could be destroyed if New York wins the lottery this season, but that is a discussion that should be tabled for another time. The point is – Anthony Davis is the end game for both of them. Even if trading for him was the plan the whole time, the Celtics and the Lakers should do all they can to get Davis. Because if they do, it not only secures them as legitimate contenders for the next few years. It can also get them out of the toxic situation that their squads are in.

Their seasons can be summarized like this: It wasn’t supposed to be this way. This year was supposed to be exciting. Both teams were coming off seasons where they exceeded expectations greatly. The Celtics’ efforts got themselves within one game of the finals, while the Lakers played their most promising basketball since the Kobe days.

It was supposed to get better from there. The Celtics were getting Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward back from injury, and the Lakers were bringing in LeBron James. Adding them to teams that were already on the rise should have made quite a fun year ahead for both of them. While it hasn’t been the season from hell, it hasn’t been a season for the ages.

The Lakers are in the playoff hunt, currently 2.5 games in back of the Clippers for the eighth seed, but even in the loaded Western Conference, they weren’t expected to be on the outside looking in. The Celtics are most likely going to be in the upper tier of the playoff bracket, but even in the top-heavy east, they were expected to be at the very top, not a notch below it.

The reason why both have been similarly disappointing is for the exact same reason: They are both teams of two timelines, and the said timelines don’t mesh together. They both have promising young talent as well as hefty star power that was believed to complement the other, and they haven’t for the opposite reasons.

The Celtics’ youth movement has proven both to the world and themselves that they are capable of great things. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier have all said the right things, but multiple times we’ve seen the Celtics’ frequent discord between the youth and their veterans. In a nutshell, the youth is too good to take a backseat to Irving and Hayward after all they’ve accomplished so far. They are not meant to play in a lesser role.

The Lakers’ youth movement has still proven enough to be promising, but just not ready yet for the big time. With Kyle Kuzma being the exception, the young prospects haven’t proven to be the supporting cast that LeBron had hoped for coming in. That’s not to say that they can never be, but with 34-year-old LeBron onboard, patience is limited for them. Their future was bright with or without LeBron. It’s just success wasn’t meant to come that quickly.

The tension in the Celtics’ locker room has been well-documented. We’ve seen Marcus Morris shove Jaylen Brown in a team huddle. We’ve seen Kyrie Irving lose his cool both at Brad Stevens and Gordon Hayward. And of course, we’ve seen multiple players – most recently Morris – call the team out for their struggles.

There hasn’t been nearly as much reported tension from the Lakers’ side, but there have been subtle hints that maybe the guys aren’t too unified. That starts with the trade rumors surrounding the team and Anthony Davis. While it may have been nothing, that whole ordeal with the team all sitting away from LeBron while the trade rumors involving their young pieces seemed like quite the coincidence.

Their seasons fit the word bittersweet because, this far into the season, we didn’t think that progress for either of them would come this slowly. Things haven’t been entirely bad, and they can even get better from here on out. Both teams have had stretches where they have looked like the team we expected they would be, but they have yet to show that they’ve moved completely past their demons.

Both Boston and Los Angeles have valid excuses for their substandard performance. That mainly has to do with the injuries they’ve had to endure. LeBron’s groin injury on Christmas Day came at a bad time as the Lakers were hitting their stride. Still, that should have helped the Lakers grow as a unit in James’ absence. Hayward’s return to the floor from his ankle injury has been slower than most would have liked, which isn’t anyone’s fault. Still, that should have helped the Celtics figure out what could work as Hayward recovered.

Worst of all, it probably won’t get any easier from here. According to Tankathon, Los Angeles has the ninth toughest remaining schedule while Boston has the sixth. Even if both play their best basketball from here on out, at this point they’re more likely than not going to leave their fanbases wanting more at season’s end.

No matter how things turn out, remember that it wasn’t too long ago that both the Celtics and the Lakers were in two of the most favorable positions in the league. The Lakers had young talent, a superstar to show them how to win, and cap flexibility for the top of the class free agents. The Celtics had young talent, several All-Star caliber players, and plenty of experience. Once upon a time, those two were in such a luxurious spot that trading for Anthony Davis didn’t seem nearly as much of a priority as it is now.

The lesson from all this is that having too much of a good thing can be a legitimate concern. Also, you can’t always have Anthony Davis as a failsafe option when things go wrong.