Lakers News: What Bill Simmons Thinks LA Would Change If It Got To Replay Western Conference Finals

Not sure why LA didn't think of this sooner

The NBA season is officially over, and we can now turn the page to the offseason, even though the Lakers started theirs a while ago. The Lakers season ended in an unexpected sweep of the newly crowned champions, the Denver Nuggets, and superstar Nikola Jokic. 

LA simply lacked the big bodies they had in their 2020 championship run, and it ultimately ended up being the end-all-be-all for the Lake show. Expect they didn't lack the big bodies in 2023 like they did in 2020, kind of. The Lakers signed NBA champion and former LeBron James teammate Tristian Thompson toward the end of the regular season, and he had yet to play a role for the Lakers until Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals. Thompson made it as tough as possible for the 2023 Finals MVP, but it was too late for the Lakers. 

NBA sports writer and podcaster Bill Simmons spoke on the Western Conference Finals in his latest podcast and said he believes LA would've used Thompson in a more significant role had they were to do it all over again. 

"Lakers threw out tristian Thompson in game 4 after thinking he wasn't going to play and he came out and did a bunch of Tristian Thompson stuff. he just shoved and pushed and shouldered and bumping as he was just trying to provoke Jokic for a couple of minutes. His [Jokic] RPM's started to rev and it was working. I actually think if the Lakers had to do that series over again they porbabl;y would have to just throw Thompson out, and say hey bang Jokic out and use your six fouls." 

(via Bill Simmons)

Looking back at it, it wouldn't have been the worst thing. Even now, I'm sure many Laker fans wouldn't be upset with that. Anthony Davis was the only viable option to guard Jokic, but that exerted a ton of energy that we needed in the offensive end. 

Thompson showed he could handle the challenge, and it would've been great to use him in the first three games; who knows what could've happened. 

Nonetheless, it is what it is, and maybe Thompson wouldn't have made a difference, or perhaps he would've. We will never know, but the thing LA can do now is get some reinforcements and be better prepared for next season. 

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