Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 29 points and LeBron James added 23 points, 14 assists and seven rebounds as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Washington Wizards 124-106 Tuesday at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

JaVale McGee contributed 20 points and 15 rebounds for the 33-41 Lakers.

Bradley Beal led all scorers with 32 points for the 30-45 Wizards, who have lost five straight.

Luke Walton Not to Blame for Flawed Lakers' Lost Season

On Tuesday, Marc Stein of the New York Times reported that the Lakers are "widely expected" to relieve head coach Luke Walton of his duties after the season.

That shouldn't come as a surprise with the Lakers guaranteed to be outside the playoffs for the sixth straight year.

However, Walton was in a brutal situation, especially for a young coach. And in retrospect, it's hard seeing many leaders finding success in Los Angeles given the circumstances.

First, the Lakers only had LeBron James, Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma on the court together for 23 games. Those four players all played on opening night and were supposed to lead the team back to the postseason.

However, everything that could go wrong did. James suffered a groin strain and missed 17 games. Ingram and Ball suffered season-ending injuries, and Kuzma missed some time with ankle issues.

When those four were on the court together, the team went 15-8 in 23 games, capped by an impressive 127-101 win over the defending champion Golden State Warriors on the road. Their 65.2 winning percentage would be the fifth-best mark in the league if spread out over the entire course of the season. Would they have kept up that rate if everyone was healthy? Who knows, but they wouldn't be playing out the string now.

Second, pieces assembled around the main core simply haven't worked out. Michael Beasley only played 26 games. Reggie Bullock is shooting 31.4 percent from three-point range. Mike Muscala has a 6.6 player efficiency rating in a Lakers uniform. In fact, only two Lakers on the current roster have a league-average 15.0 PER or better, per Basketball Reference.

Related to that notion, the Lakers didn't obtain enough efficient offensive players, most specifically ones who can light it up from long range.

In a league where you need to be successful behind the three-point line or die, the Lakers have wilted en route to missing the playoffs. Entering Tuesday, Los Angeles shot just 32.9 percent from beyond the arc, which is the second-worst mark in the NBA. In fact, only the Lakers and the last-place Phoenix Suns shoot under 33.9 percent, so the Lakers are a full percentage point behind the entire league outside of a 17-58 club.

Furthermore, only one team (the Oklahoma City Thunder) in the bottom 10 in three-point percentage is above .500, and it has a former NBA MVP in Russell Westbrook and a top-three MVP candidate in Paul George.

The bottom line is Walton had numerous obstacles hindering any possible success this season. In hindsight, this team was flawed, which showed when the team went short-handed.

Walton could have done better, but the team had a low ceiling given the circumstances regardless of who was on the sidelines.

Uninspiring Wizards Loss Foreshadows Bleak Near Future

The NBA's 30 teams are split into different groups.

Some teams are at the top, ready to compete for the title now (e.g. the Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks).

Others went through that contending stretch, burned it all down and are looking to build back up with new and exciting assets that offer hope (e.g. the Sacramento Kings and Atlanta Hawks).

Others are currently languishing at the bottom of the standings and looking to stockpile those assets with top draft picks and a boatload of cap space (e.g. the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers).

Granted, it's far more ideal to be competing for championships in the near future than the distant future, but in the NBA, you're in a good spot if you fall into one of those three categories.

The Wizards do not.

They are in the worst possible spot a team can be: not good enough to compete for the postseason, not bad enough to obtain a better chance at a top draft pick and saddled with enough future question marks that prevent anything better than mediocrity in the near future.

As far as the first sentiment goes, Washington was never in the Lakers game, losing by double digits for more than half the contest. Granted, the team didn't have John Wall, but the short-handed Lakers don't have Ingram or Ball.

Wall likely wouldn't have improved the team's 6-of-32 three-point shooting all that much, or the fact that the Wizards lost the battle of the boards by 13 against a team eight games under .500.

The Wizards' magic number for missing the postseason is now just one.

The problem is the team won't be in good position for a top pick. Duke's Zion Williamson and Murray State's Ja Morant stand as the clear top two choices in this year's draft, but at this juncture, the Wizards have the seventh-worst record in the standings. A team can have the seventh-most pingpong balls in the lottery and emerge with a top-two pick, but a team at No. 7 only has a 7.5 percent chance at finishing No. 1.

Third, the future has some concerns.

Wall is one of the game's most exciting players when healthy. Watching him work at breakneck speed after grabbing an outlet pass and coasting to the hole end-to-end is a marvel to watch. But how will he respond after suffering devastating injuries that include season-ending left heel surgery and a ruptured left Achilles? Wall won't be back until the latter half of next regular season at the earliest.

Furthermore, the team doesn't have much room on the books to make improvements via free agency.

Even if the Wizards decline Jabari Parker's option for next season, the Wizards already have $89 million against the books for next season, per Basketball Reference. After this season, Wall has close to $170 million coming his way if he picks up his 2022-23 player option. Ian Mahinmi is getting paid $15.45 million to be a backup, and Beal has two years and close to $56 million left after this year. The flexibility just isn't there for them to get better.

Washington made an effort to stay competitive in the Eastern Conference with its offseason moves (namely acquiring center Dwight Howard), but at this stage, the Wizards should look to do a full rebuild, stockpile as many draft assets as possible and wait for the books to clear to start from scratch.

There doesn't seem like another option at this point.

What's Next?

Both teams will hit the road Wednesday. The Wizards will play the second matchup of a four-game Western Conference swing versus the Phoenix Suns at Talking Stick Resort Arena, and the Lakers will meet the Utah Jazz at Vivint Smart Home Arena.