There are a lot of ways to look at what went wrong for the Los Angeles Lakers this season, but two common threads that surface every time it’s discussed by the players themselves are injuries and the Anthony Davis trade rumors, both of which approached critical mass at around the same time, killing any ability for the team to create chemistry and continuity.
At exit interviews, the players themselves admitted that the rumors affected the team, and there was a report that the young Lakers “stopped trusting” LeBron James during the period when such whispers were at their loudest.