What on earth are the Lakers doing?

Is it possible to sign LeBron James and still lose the offseason? Probably not, but the Los Angeles Lakers are trying to find out.

The Lakers made the most consequential signing of 2018 when they inked LeBron to a four-year, $154-million deal, but the bizarre moves they've made since have induced more head-scratching than a bad case of lice. Within 24 hours of signing him, and 36 hours of the start of free agency, they used up virtually all of their remaining cap space to sign Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Lance Stephenson, JaVale McGee, and Rajon Rondo for a combined $28 million next season.

Even leaving aside the character concerns some of those guys carry, and the dissonance between their track records and LeBron's previously expressed desire to team up with cerebral players, they simply aren't natural fits next to him (McGee is arguably an exception, but he's been a 10-minute-a-game player for the last four seasons). Surrounding LeBron with knock-down shooters and versatile defenders has always been a recipe for success, but the Lakers - who were already cramped for spacing - have largely failed to do that. The Rondo signing was particularly egregious here, given that he's a non-shooting, over-the-hill point guard who can't play off-ball, locks in on defense maybe 10 percent of the time, and is basically an older version of sophomore Lonzo Ball.

Caldwell-Pope does make some sense. He shot 38.3 percent from deep last season, can capably defend multiple positions, and is a fellow Klutch Sports client whose signing (given how soon afterward it was announced) effectively came in conjunction with LeBron's. But giving him $12 million still feels like an overpay in a market which just a handful of teams had the space to offer that much, and the Lakers probably could have done better if they'd been willing to wait. They certainly could have done better than Rondo and Stephenson.

All the more vexing, in an ostensibly corresponding salary-shedding move, they renounced promising young big man Julius Randle, who subsequently agreed to an eminently reasonable two-year, $18-million deal with the New Orleans Pelicans. Then they reportedly passed on signing All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins to a dirt-cheap one-year contract that he instead signed with the Golden State Warriors, the team the Lakers are supposed to be chasing for Western Conference supremacy.

So, what gives? Are these moves being made with LeBron's input? At his behest? Because the Lakers' front-office tandem of Rob Pelinka and Magic Johnson had, to this point, proven shrewd, calculating, and prudent. Why are they suddenly acting like the Sacramento Kings?

There's one obvious strategy behind their offseason, which is that outside of LeBron, they are exclusively signing one-year deals, ensuring they'll still have significant cap space next summer when Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler, Klay Thompson, Kemba Walker, and Kyrie Irving could all be unrestricted free agents. With that in mind, it almost feels they've decided to punt on the 2018-19 title chase, accepting that the Warriors won't be caught this season. It's not the craziest notion in the world: Give the kids another year to develop, let LeBron feel things out, roll over the free-agent ambitions to 2019, and hope Durant is ready to leave the Bay by then.

The thing is, the Lakers could've employed that same strategy and still put together a significantly better supporting cast than the current one. Guys like Trevor Ariza, JJ Redick, Tyreke Evans, Ed Davis, and, of course, Cousins all signed one-year deals and figure to offer better bang for the buck - for players who would be more logical fits on a LeBron-centric roster - than the guys the Lakers signed instead. While the Lakers used $9 million of their cap space on Rondo, the Philadelphia 76ers used $12.8 million to take on the final year of Wilson Chandler, getting a better roster fit and draft-pick compensation in the bargain.

It's not like any one of those guys - be it Chandler, Ariza, Redick, Randle, or even Cousins - was going to vault the Lakers into the Warriors' stratosphere, but smarter roster machinations around LeBron could have at least closed the gap and given the Lakers a better chance to capitalize in the event of some bad Golden State luck. As of now, they don't look like a team that can hang with the Rockets, let alone the defending champs. Even the Jazz, Thunder, and Pelicans would be tough for the Lakers, as presently constructed, to beat. Meanwhile, LeBron is going to turn 34 later this year and has already played more total NBA minutes than all but nine players in history. He is, miraculously, still in his prime, having just submitted the most productive postseason run of his career, but who knows how much longer that will last? How do you justify squandering a year of it?

Look, the offseason is still young and the Lakers have moves they can make that would put them in the 2019 championship conversation. The obvious one would be a Leonard trade, but they could also try to trade for Butler or Walker or any other disgruntled star who's approaching free agency. For now, they are right not to acquiesce to the Spurs' reportedly preposterous demands and sell the farm for Leonard, when they can potentially just sign him outright next summer. The Spurs don't have as much leverage as they likely hope, and perhaps the Lakers will pull the trigger on a deal in the coming weeks if and when San Antonio softens and lowers its asking price. Another star may already be on the roster; Ball or Brandon Ingram or Kyle Kuzma might really pop next season. This could all look very different in a year, or a month.

But this still feels like a huge missed opportunity. The Lakers had a huge advantage over the field this offseason that they won't necessarily have in the future; they had a ton of cap space at a time when hardly any other contender did. That space is almost all gone now, and what do they have to show for it? They could have been more ambitious, could've tried to poach a young restricted free agent with long-term upside, could've rolled the dice on Cousins, could've at least signed veterans who made sense on their roster.

Yes, the Lakers are always going to be a free-agent draw, and Leonard has made no secret of his desire to play for them, but even with LeBron on board, they are assured of nothing. For now, they've already hamstrung their chances of contending this year, and that's a shame.