Timeout for puzzlement

The Blob has always freely acknowledged it is an occasional "Do Whut?" zone. Which is to say, it doesn't get stuff everyone around it seems to get, on account of several variables.

One, it doesn't understand the question.

Two, it understands the question but the answer doesn't make any sense to it.

Three, it occasionally looks at the world from an extremely bizarre angle (i.e., upside-down, with its head tilted at a 45-degree angle, through squinty eyes).

Anyway ... this brings us to the topic du jour.

Why is everyone but the Blob suddenly anointing the Lakers as the Great Next in the NBA Western Conference, simply because they gave up the farm and several surrounding acres for Anthony Davis?

Now, Anthony Davis is an acknowledged force in the League. He is a transformational player. And his game should fit tongue-in-groove with that of LeBron James, who should be healed up, rested and ready to go again come fall.

But. But.

Does that mean the Lakers are suddenly the favorites in the West, which some people seem to be taking as an article of faith? Is AD going to make that much difference for a team that, remember, gave up Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart (plus three first-round picks) to get him?

Look. Ingram, Ball and Hart are not AD nor will ever be confused with him, but they weren't empty uniforms, either. Ingram was the third-leading scorer for the Lakers last season, averaging 18.3 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists. Ball, despite playing only 47 games, was the fourth-leading scorer and averaged 10 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.4 assists at the point -- numbers which would doubtless have been higher had he not been injured so much of the year. And Hart was an effective minutes filler, playing in 67 games and averaging 25.6 minutes per.

To be sure, Davis could make up for all that. But has everyone forgotten just what a train wreck involving a dumpster fire the Lakers were last season? How the botched negotiations for Davis the first time around created major trust issues between the team's young core and LeBron, who was perceived to be pulling the strings behind the scenes? How, apparently unable to repair the damage, he eventually distanced himself from everyone? And how stupendously mediocre the Lakers were even before LeBron got hurt and shut it down?

Landing Davis might magically resolve all of that, but the Blob isn't much for magic (and Magic wasn't much for the Lakers, as it turned out. Rimshot.) It still sees an utterly dysfunctional organization that can't get out of its own way. Same clowns, different day.

Or not. I suppose it's possible the Lakers could also pluck Kawhi Leonard from the free agent pool this summer, given that Kawhi is from L.A. and may or may not feel like coming home. In which case, yeah, they'd become the odds-on favorite to dethrone the Warriors in the West.

But absent that?

They make the playoffs for sure, providing LeBron doesn't get hurt again and can mend a few fences. They finish, let's say, third in the West. Maybe they even win a playoff series or two.

But the Great Next?

Can't see it yet.

Maybe if I squint harder ...