05-18-2021, 04:35 PM
(05-18-2021, 01:50 PM)dirkfansince1998 Wrote:Quote:This team also had way more lost games and lost starter games than just about any team (I think the Heat was the only team close).
The mentioned number only accounts for COVID related missed games. I already mentioned some other examples. AD missed 36 games (half of the season). LeBron missed 26 games.
That's kind of the point you seem to be missing. AD missing games due to injury could (in fact does) happen in any season. Anyone making predictions about the Lakers' seasons will always need to factor a fair amount of absences for AD into the estimate. Lebron's injury was less predictable, but he is getting older, and, again, a 30+ high-usage player spraining his ankle and missing a lot of games is the type of thing that can happen any season. Losing multiple key players to a pandemic and then getting them back at a percentage of their normal selves for an extended period while they recover is not something that happens every season--and it's not something that happened to every team or to the same degree to the teams it did impact.
In thinking about how the Lakers will do going forward, it's fair to factor in that the team now is different than the team that fell to 7th place in the absence of their stars. In thinking about how the Mavs will do going forward, it's fair to distinguish the second-half of the season team, post Covid troubles, from the first half of the season team.