"The Lakers are COOKED at the point!" - Kendrick Perkins believes the LA Lakers should not bring Anthony Davis back once he recovers

ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins believes that the LA Lakers should just shut down Anthony Davis even if could be healthy enough for a return this season.[Photo: Lakers Daily]

The Phoenix Suns just handed a thorough beatdown to LeBron James and the LA Lakers without Anthony Davis. Despite leading the Lakers in scoring, rebounding and assists, "King James" could do nothing to stop the slaughter. With Davis’ return still uncertain, it seems like the season is over for the Purple and Gold.

Kendrick Perkins, who was in Boston to celebrate Kevin Garnett’s jersey retirement, kept an eye on the Lakers vs Suns game. The former NBA player and current ESPN analyst practically shouted out what the likely thousands of Laker Nation faithful are feeling.

Here’s what the NBA champ had to say about the LA Lakers’ disastrous season:

“The Lakers are COOKED at the point! It’s no reason to bring back AD and might as well let Bron fight to win the scoring title and let that be it! Carry on…”

The Lakers are COOKED at the point! It’s no reason to bring back AD and might as well let Bron fight to win the scoring title and let that be it! Carry on…

Despite the Lakers’ embarrassing campaign, there’s still a sense that the team’s front office is hoping for a miraculous turnaround once Anthony Davis comes back. There were some positive reports before the Suns game that the Lakers’ big man was a little ahead of schedule. He is now reportedly out of his walking boot and could start shooting drills on Monday.

Anthony Davis’ return, though, is not a guarantee that the LA Lakers will salvage their season. The Hollywood squad is only 11-10 when both Davis and LeBron James are playing. Davis partnering with Russell Westbrook is even worse, with a 17-19 slate.

Anthony Davis is set to resume on-court shooting drills on Monday, per Frank Vogel. That will be close to the 4-week mark (Davis was hurt on Feb. 16).

The potential Anthony Davis comeback will not solve other glaring issues that the LA Lakers have been unable to fix despite LeBron James being in the lineup. They remain old, slow and are unbelievably disengaged at times like they were against the Phoenix Suns.

Having LeBron James go for the scoring title and a slew of records along the way might be the only consolation to this terrible season. Pushing for Anthony Davis to return with no foreseeable solution to their myriad of problems could be a disaster in the making.

Anthony Davis cannot save the LA Lakers

Even when healthy, the LA Lakers' Big 3 has miserably performed as a group. [Photo: NBA.com]

The resounding win against the Washington Wizards felt like it happened years ago. It seemed like an inviting teaser for thousands of LA Lakers fans who still held out hope that they could really do what’s expected of them.

Any thoughts of a potentially good game quickly vanished after the shellacking that started in the first quarter. Phoenix dropped 48 points alone in the initial 12 minutes of the game to the horror of Laker Nation. It seemed like the Lakers didn’t even want to play, let alone try and compete for a win.

Ladies & Gentlemen, after watching two great games earlier today, we are subjected to watching these @Lakers. This is an utter disgrace of defensive play. Completely non-existent vs the @Suns. Why didn’t the @Lakers just say “we didn’t want to show up.”?
Good Lord!

The stats of the first half told the entire tale of the game and showed what kind of drubbing LeBron James and the Lakers suffered. LA committed 12 turnovers to the Suns’ 3. The errors quickly led to uncontested shots on the other end, where Phoenix had a 23-4 edge in fastbreak points.

An argument could easily have been made that had Anthony Davis been there, they’d still go out limping to a loss. Yes, they gave the Suns fits last season in the playoffs before Davis' injury, but that was a totally different team. This version of the Lakers just has too many holes to plug in that the often-injured big man can’t fix.