The Los Angeles Lakers are putting a pause on plans to sign free agent Carmelo Anthony. Los Angeles had long been rumored to be interested in Anthony’s services - in large part because of his close relationship with LeBron James - but the Lakers have played horrendous basketball of late.

With only 19 games left to play, the Lakers are four-and-a-half games out of the playoffs. And they’ve decided that, until their trajectory changes, there’s no use giving valuable minutes to veterans who don’t fit into their long term plans.

Bringing 'Melo into team that may not have meaningful games left makes little sense for the organization or him. Lakers had waited to see who could be available for them in buyout market. For now, makes more sense for Lakers to use minutes on young players than a 34-year-old FA. https://t.co/R0rl1sqHwQ — Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 4, 2019

If you’re one to find the demise of the Lakers humorous (and some would argue it is your duty as a Warriors fan to do so), then this entire charade has been quite funny.

The Lakers have completely fallen off, having gone 15-24 since their Christmas Day victory over the Warriors. They have a worse record than the Sacramento Kings, Los Angeles Clippers, Detroit Pistons, and Brooklyn Nets. They planned to sign Anthony, a player who lasted just 10 games with the Houston Rockets before the then-struggling organization said, “nah, we’re good.”

And then they put the cherry on top of the sundae, when both the Lakers and Anthony mutually agreed that the 10-time All-Star signing with a team falling off the cliff and looking way, way up at the playoffs maybe wasn’t the best idea.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Anyway, if you want to watch the Lakers either continue their plummet, or tread a little water, they play the Clippers at 7:30 p.m. on NBA TV.