Where Should Los Angeles Lakers Turn Attention to Land Another Star?
Failed endeavor after failed endeavor has grounded the Los Angeles Lakers in foreign fashion, delaying their transition from superstar-seeking project to championship heavyweight, handicapping their ability to figure out what happens next.
So, what happens next?
Somehow, someway, the show must go on. The search for a post-Kobe Bryant-era cornerstone must continue.
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Lessons Learned
The Lakers have spent the better part of three years (unsuccessfully) engineering future direction.
Chris Paul was their future (2011), until former NBA commissioner David Stern decided he wasn't. Dwight Howard was their future (2012-13), until he left for Houston, unwilling to endure Bryant's company any longer.
Cap space—once an accessory—soon became their future. LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Love, among others, could all be sold on Los Angeles lore and absorbed via financial plasticity the money-burning Lakers rarely enjoyed.
Sure enough, those options gradually—yet quite suddenly—ebbed into nonexistence. James rejoined the Cleveland Cavaliers. Anthony re-signed with the New York Knicks. Love followed James.
Grand plans came undone.
But they are not dead.
Desperate for star power outside a 36-year-old Bryant, the Lakers' pursuit of clarity plows on, their needs obvious, their next move uncertain.
Immediately, the Lakers have assembled an engaging placeholder consisting of promising and proven talent that creates hope—however false or exaggerated—without compromising the cap flexibility that has become essential to moving forward.
“I’m going to walk into our locker room the first day of our meeting and say, ‘I want to win a championship,’” head coach Byron Scott said of his team, per the Los Angeles Daily News' Mark Medina. "I don’t want us thinking it’s fine if we just make the playoffs or think we have no shot at making the playoffs."
Upbeat approaches to right now change nothing. Championship contenders serve stability. Flush with expiring contracts, dry of long-term building blocks, the Lakers haven't constructed a core they plan on keeping intact much longer.
According to ESPN.com's Marc Stein, in fact, they already have eyes on outside players capable of expediting their rebuild: Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragic.
Both can become unrestricted free agents next summer. Dragic holds a player option for 2014-15—which he will almost surely decline—while Bledsoe's empty foray into restricted free agency could compel him to sign his qualifying offer, play through next season and join his teammate on the open market come July.
Signing both is a long shot, but Bledsoe-willing, Stein does believe at least one will be primed for the taking:
"If Bledsoe signs the qualifier, furthermore, you can pretty much bank on him leaving Phoenix as soon as he gets the chance, because players don't take that sort of gamble and then bury the bad feelings months later to re-sign with the incumbent team. And that would naturally increase Dragic's leverage in the process, because Phoenix simply couldn't stomach losing its two most valuable players, who both happen to play what is routinely regarded as the most important position on the floor in the modern NBA.
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Notice where the Lakers are turning here rather than whom—Bledsoe and Dragic—they're specifically turning to: free agency.
Trades can accelerate reclamation ventures. The Lakers themselves thought they had done just that in 2012 by landing Steve Nash and Howard.
Similar, inroad-paving alternatives might even be available now.
Fox 10's Jude LaCava said the Phoenix Suns would be open to moving Bledsoe while making an appearance on Fox Sports 910 Radio. Jay King of Mass Live also unearthed video—since taken down—of ESPN Boston's Jackie MacMullan reporting that Rajon Rondo wanted to be traded, which Boston Celtics president Rich Gotham has refuted:
Why, with rumors of disgruntled stars aflutter, are the Lakers seemingly focused on 2015 free agency and the waiting it ferries?
For the same reason they were never threats to snag Love before free agency: assets.
Impromptu fortune-turning trades remain unrealistic. The Lakers' trade bait is limited to rookie Julius Randle, expiring contracts and the 2015 lottery-protected first-round draft pick they received from the Houston Rockets.
While that might be enough to make something happen, it falls strikingly shy of star-worthy.
There is only free agency, in all its complications, for the Lakers.
The Course
Targeting stars at will is easy.
Marc Gasol, DeAndre Jordan and Paul Millsap, along with Rondo, Dragic and possibly Bledsoe can reach free agency next year. LaMarcus Aldridge, Love and James can as well, but their returns are viewed as formalities.
Offering contracts on the fly is something the Lakers can do, yet there's more to it. The market must dictate their actions.
With players such as James and Love presumably off the board, next year's free-agent pool lacks that one-player turnaround. Gasol will be 30, Jordan isn't the build-your-championship-contender-around-me type and Dragic, Rondo and Bledsoe aren't No. 1 options for title-ready teams.
Finding that top-10 or top-five power—someone who can really push the bill—will take additional patience. Another year's worth. As in 2016, when Kevin Durant is slated for free agency.
Turning attention to him isn't foolproof, but retired New York Post columnist Pete Vecsey does see merit in waiting. Said Vecsey on CLNS Radio in August, as transcribed by Lakers Nation:
"I say if Durant goes anywhere I look for him to go to the Lakers because they’re going to have a tremendous amount of money to give him. Kobe will be on the way out at that point and they won’t have anybody. A guy like him might want to start with the Lakers, or maybe he might want to go a team where he can win a championship.
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Planning for Durant won't take absolute restraint. There is money for the Lakers to spend before 2016. They have only four players under guaranteed contract beyond next season, and Bryant's lucrative extension comes off the books once Durant enters the free-agent fray.
Self-control would have to be displayed through caution and deliberate activity.
If the plan is to make a run at Durant, chasing someone of similar ilk—or rather, position—makes little sense. Spending too freely also jeopardizes any potential cap room.
That should eliminate the Lakers' desire to sign a top-tier center.
Rare—near-imaginary, even—is the powerhouse constructed around a big man. They come overpriced and play a position that isn't conducive with aging.
Pursuing a wing scorer of any kind should be equally taboo. In addition to a possible play for Durant, the Lakers would still have Nick Young and Bryant. Exhausting funds on another shooting guard or small forward would create expensive overlap.
And put that way, the Lakers already seem to be looking in the right place: at point guard.
Neither Jeremy Lin nor Nash represents a long-term solution. Summer 2015 will be packed with point-guard talent, which, amid the rise of dominant floor generals, has become exceedingly affordable.
Bledsoe isn't landing the max deal Stein says he's seeking for a reason. The contracts Isaiah Thomas (four years, $27 million) and Kyle Lowry (four years, $48 million) signed this summer highlight the NBA's embarrassment of point-guard riches.
Bringing in a starting, star-level point guard should, in theory, cost the Lakers less than any other substantial move they can make. And that, in turn, should ensure Durant remains a realistic target nearly two years from now.
Same Plan, Different Execution
More waiting is hardly standard for the Lakers—especially following two years of struggle, and especially as Bryant's career clock ticks on. But adjusting their approach to fit the landscape of what they need and how they're trying to get it is necessary.
"Despite the slew of teams which, like the Suns, have adopted a more asset-oriented approach to building a contender," writes Bleacher Report's Jim Cavan, "the Lakers aren’t about to mess with the formula that’s worked: Get the big names, the rest will take care of itself."
To get the big names, the Lakers must wait. Not like they have since 2011, when one name, one move was supposed to solve everything, but differently.
No one player will ride into Los Angeles within the next year ready to save the day and morph the Lakers into a team qualified to go much further than Bryant can carry them. That player won't be out there before 2016. If he is, he'll be available by trade, and the Lakers won't have the asset clout to acquire him.
Attention must be turned to a two-year plan rather than instant gratification. Between now and 2016, the Lakers shouldn't be zeroing in on one player, restricting their options to a lone savior who isn't there.
Chase a talented point guard, build the roster up and then, in 2016, try to finish what began years ago.
Swinging and missing on Paul, Howard, Anthony, James and Love should act as the Lakers' ultimate lesson. Battling against the clock isn't always possible or smart.
Sometimes, when the alternative would entail rushing headfirst into oncoming, potentially lasting mediocrity, it's best to plan and hope in accordance with it.
*Contract and free agency information via ShamSports.
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