The Los Angeles Lakers are 26-30, ninth in the Western Conference.

They've lost six of their last eight, including Wednesday's loss to a Portland Trail Blazers team that has been stripped to the studs. Their biggest acquisition of the offseason is publicly airing his grievances with their head coach. They're being openly mocked by one member of the team in first place.

That team, a team which entered this season fully expecting to contend with their big three and veteran supporting cast, ended up doing nothing at the trade deadline.

Thursday's deadline came and went without a single trade by a team that very clearly needed reinforcements, or a roster reconstruction. Now, their only real move left is to pursue veterans on the buyout market, which may be a hard sell when the team is, again, in ninth place.

Lakers reportedly pursued some trades

The Lakers' lack of trades reportedly weren't by choice. Yahoo Sports' Chris Haynes reports the Houston Rockets offered John Wall to the Lakers in exchange for Russell Westbrook, but any possible trade died when the Lakers declined to include a first-round draft pick.

The Rockets were always an intriguing trade partner because, well, they were one of the few teams, perhaps the only one, in position to take on Westbrook's enormous contract.

With seemingly no way to unload Westbrook, the Lakers were left to look for trades on the margins. The Athletic's Bill Oram reports the team had deals for the Toronto Raptors' Khem Birch and Chris Boucher and the New York Knicks’ Cam Reddish fall through. They even reportedly considered bringing back Dennis Schroder, which would have been the single funniest outcome of the trade deadline.

Unfortunately for the Lakers, other teams knew how much help they needed and how few tradable assets they had on hand. That's a bad combination.

Lakers in dire position heading into 2nd half

At this point, the way forward for the Lakers is clear, even if it's only because they missed a turn at a junction. Hope LeBron James and Anthony Davis stay healthy, hope Westbrook gets it together and hope they land a some usable pieces for cheap in the next few months.

That's asking a lot from a team that has simply looked lost at times, even when fully healthy, and it's about to get a lot harder.

No team in the NBA has a harder remaining schedule than the Lakers, per Tankathon. They have five games remaining against the Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors, the top two teams in their conference. Among their listed "easiest" opponents is the Los Angeles Clippers, a team that has beaten them this season, has a better record and just got better at the deadline.

There had been hope the team could pull off a deadline like what James and the Cleveland Cavaliers did in 2018, almost completely turning over their supporting cast and managing to make the Finals in a season they had no business contending. That year may have been James' most impressive job of uplifting a team, and he now faces a similar task this year.

The good news is the team still has talent, the problem is it's just not meshing yet. Players like Malik Monk and Carmelo Anthony have more than justified their minutes. The biggest issue is what to do with Westbrook, who doesn't seem happy head coach Frank Vogel has benched him from the closing lineup.

Westbrook's limits are well-known at this point, and it's a simple problem for the Lakers without an easy answer. Westbrook can only be Russell Westbrook when he sees the majority of touches on offense, and the Lakers are simply better when James has the ball. Add in Westbrook's struggles on offense when he doesn't have the ball (he's shooting a cool 28.7% on catch-and-shoot 3s) and on defense in general, and it's easy to see why Vogel wanted to try something different in crunch time.

Of course, not playing Westbrook doesn't do anything to his $44 million salary, but that may just be a sunk loss at this point. One report indicated a trade during the offseason involving the Lakers' 2029 first-round pick could be more doable, but that does nothing to help them now.