The Los Angeles Lakers' playoff formula failed miserably despite having LeBron James and Luka Doncic on the same team. Following their playoff elimination, Utah Jazz alum Derrick Favors indirectly criticized the Lakers' top-heavy roster construction.
After former Jazz star Rudy Gobert and the Minnesota Timberwolves dealt the finishing blow to the Lakers' season, Favors pointed out what's wrong with them.
"You have to build your whole team at 8-9 guys instead of getting rid of good players/team to build “big 3”. You have to have a second unit while the stars take a break," Favors wrote on his X account.
You have to build your whole team at 8-9 guys instead of getting rid of good players/team to build “big 3”. You have to have a second unit while the stars take a break.
— Derrick Favors (@dfavors14) May 1, 2025
That is precisely how the Lakers lost to the Timberwolves
Besides James and Doncic, the Lakers also have Austin Reaves as their third banana. While Reaves may or may not make an All-Star team in the near future, he is a very explosive scorer who fits next to the Lakers' two stars like a glove.
However, outside of those three, the Lakers' only dependable players were Dorian Finney-Smith and Rui Hachimura. Players like Gabe Vincent, Jarred Vanderbilt, Maxi Kleber, and Jaxson Hayes proved they couldn't really be trusted, leading to the Lakers become over reliant on their five dependable players, which led to them running out of gas every game.
It didn't matter if the Lakers' three best players were better than the Timberwolves. The rest of Minnesota's rotation in terms of talent and impact badly outweighed the Lakers in that regard, which factored into not only why the Timberwolves beat the Lakers, but straight up embarrassed them.
Favors may not have experienced much success with the Jazz, but he saw firsthand with two separate Jazz teams who were deep enough to make the Western Conference Semifinals. One led by Gordon Hayward while others were led by Donovan Mitchell.
Even if they were Utah's best players those years, their success wasn't all on Hayward, Mitchell, or Gobert. It was on multiple players who filled holes to get the Jazz to advance, like Favors in some cases. That's what made the Joe Ingleses, Jae Crowders, Jordan Clarksons, and Mike Conleys so special. Even if they weren't stars, they could swing games.
The irony is that if the Lakers had a quality big like prime Derrick Favors, they probably would have had a much better chance against the Timberwolves from just having a dependable big man. Even if he would have been their only one, it could have stopped players like Gobert and Julius Randle from dominating as much as they did.
In the Lakers' defense, even they were shocked that they got Doncic at the deadline, so even they still had to scramble. Their focus this offseason should be to improve their overall rotation. If they can improve their support around their "Big 3," with veterans they can depend on in the postseason, suddenly their title aspirations aren't a pipe dream.
And Jazz fans know one particular team who could help them in that regard...